


Love Bonds Us All

by DoctorCampHogwarts



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Butch Kara Danvers, Deaf Character, F/F, Slow Burn, Sort Of, but Lena and Kara are idiots, everybody is badass and gay, it wasn't originally supposed to be slow burn, loveable idiots though so I hope you'll excuse this torture, science is more along the lines of superhero science than reality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-01-07 22:10:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 64,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12241596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorCampHogwarts/pseuds/DoctorCampHogwarts
Summary: When Lillian Luthor breaks out of prison two years after Lena puts her there, Lena decides to hire a highly recommended task force that will do any job for anybody who can pay. Their job? Track down and take care of Lillian before she can get to Lena. Little does she know that she's going to get a lot more than she bargained for.Or, the Bodyguard AU.





	1. 31 July 2017

Lena’s stomach flipped and she nearly threw up the breakfast she hadn’t had all over the paper in front of her. If she hadn’t already planned on skipping breakfast and lunch (because who was she kidding), she most certainly would have been now as she took in the front page.

'The Tribune' had wasted no expense. The large picture of her mother being forced into a prison transport in front of the courthouse two years previous was splashed across the front page in the most high-def color the paper could afford. ‘Luthor Matriarch Escaped’ jumped out at her from above the picture, mocking her. She couldn’t even escape it when she closed her eyes, the words seemingly burned onto the back of her eyelids.

She nearly jumped out of her skin as her intercom suddenly crackled to life.

“Miss Luthor. Miss Grant is here to see you.”

Lena quickly gathered herself together and shoved the newspaper aside, swallowing down the bile rising in her throat before answering.

“What does she need?”

Jess didn’t even miss a beat. “She says that she’d love a quote, but that if you think that low of her, she’ll take her highly sought after advice elsewhere.”

Lena chuckled slightly before hitting the intercom button. “Send her in.”

She used the few seconds before Cat entered her office to fully compose herself. She swallowed down the anger and fear and worry and slid a mask of cool indifference over her features just as the doors to her office swung open.

Lena looked up to see Cat Grant standing in her doorway in all her glory. She wore a designer pant suit with a stylish blazer on top of it. A designer hand bag hung from her right arm and a pair of sunglasses dangled from her left hand.

“Lose the act, Lena,” Cat demanded as she stalked into the room. Jess quietly closed the door behind her. “That unaffected mask may fool everybody else, but I can see right through it to the fear you’re trying to hide,” she dissected, gracefully sitting down in the chair across from Lena.

Lena held onto her mask for a moment longer before letting it drop to reveal just a bit of the fear and exhaustion she felt. Twenty years of knowing the Queen of All Media made it impossible to hide anything from her. Hell, twenty seconds of knowing Cat Grant made it impossible to hide anything from her. She was the Queen for a reason.

“I went to bed thinking I was finally managing to pull my company and name out of the mud Lex and Lillian left it in and then I wake up to,” she motioned to the paper still sitting out on her desk, the picture and headline on full display, “this.”

“You put her away once,” Cat said, not a hint of doubt in her voice, “and you’ll do it again.”

“And what is your plan, oh wise one?” Lena snarked. “If you haven’t noticed she isn’t going to fall for the I-want-to-help-further-the-cause shtick again. I’m now only preceded by Clark Kent on my mother’s list of people to kill slowly and with a vengeance.”

“If you save the snark,” Cat bit back, “I may just bless you with some of my sage wisdom.”

Lena tried to hide the yearning she felt for someone to tell her what to do. There wasn’t exactly a manual for when your psychopathic mother breaks out of prison after you put her there and is now going to try and kill you. Instead, Lena leaned back in her chair and sarcastically motioned for Cat to continue. “Please. Enlighten me.”

Cat’s skeptically raised eyebrow showed that she hadn’t been as successful in hiding her feelings as she had hoped, but thankfully, Cat didn’t press and instead enlightened her.

“I know some people that specialize in jobs like this.”

Lena raised her eyebrows in surprise and disbelief. “Specialize in jobs that involve psychopathic mothers?”

“Not psychopathic mothers specifically,” Cat corrected with a roll of her eyes, “but protection, yes.”

It was Lena’s turn to roll her eyes. “If you’re talking about your contacts in the police force, Cat, I’m not interested.” She subconsciously rubbed her thigh.

Cat’s expression soured at the movement. Lena immediately removed her hand as if she had been burned. Cat’s eyes lingered on her leg for a moment longer before looking back up at her.

“While two of them are former police,” Cat admitted, “I am sure that you will find them better than a squad of officers.”

“I don’t care if I find them better than a squad of Navy SEALs.” Cat’s lips pinched in amusement. Lena just ignored it. “I can take care of myself.”

“Not even two minutes ago, you were practically begging for help,” Cat said, calling her out.

“I was not begging for help,” Lena scoffed indignantly.

“You said please,” Cat pointed out dryly. “That’s practically begging when it comes to you.”

“I still wasn’t begging.”

“And you still need help.”

“And look how well that turned out,” Lena growled.

Cat’s gaze flickered back down to Lena’s legs again before returning to her face. “While I admit they did a horrid job, it went a lot better than if you didn’t have help at all and these people are infinitely better than them. The least you could do it meet with them.”

Lena immediately opened her mouth to argue before freezing as she caught sight of Cat’s expression. It almost looked like Cat was concerned for her well being. It seemed to take forever for Lena to wrap her head around the concept. Nobody ever got concerned about her and her well being. Not anymore.

Couple that with the fact that Cat had actually praised these people with literal praise instead of a thinly veiled good word that could end up being mistaken for an insult and Lena decided that she could at least indulge the media mogul.

“Okay,” Lena relented. “I’ll meet with them, but I don’t guarantee that I’ll hire them.”

“Of course not,” Cat agreed, grinning as if Lena had already put them on the payroll. She got up out of her seat and gathered her things up before starting to make her way to the door. “I’ll call you after I’ve set up a meeting,” she called over her shoulder.

With that, Cat Grant walked out of the office as quickly and as suddenly as she had entered it.

Lena stared at the spot she had disappeared, suddenly unsure of whether she should have agreed to a meeting or not. Cat had looked much too smug for her to have agreed to just a simple meeting.

Lena sighed and pulled her laptop toward her. As much as she hated waiting around with little to no information, she decided to trust Cat. She had never steered her wrong before and there was little use worrying about it or her impending murder when she had more pressing matters.

“Jess,” Lena said through the intercom. “What’s my agenda for today?”


	2. 4 August 2017

Lena wrapped her hands around her neglected cup of coffee and scanned the crowded Starbucks for any sign of the blonde Cat said would be there. So far, she had had no such luck.

A bright flash of light suddenly pulled her out of her search and toward the large windows that looked out onto the sidewalk outside. Another series of bright flashes went off as the congregated paparazzi realized she was looking at them and started snapping photos in quick succession like sharks after blood.

Lena quickly ducked away and tried to ignore the flashes and the looks ranging from curious to irritated that she was getting from other patrons. Just for something to distract her, Lena pulled her phone out of her pocket and pulled up the photo Cat had sent her of her contact.

The woman in the photo smiled up at her from her phone screen. Her long, blonde hair was pulled back in a strict ponytail, not a hair out of place. Even in the photo, the woman’s eyes seemed to glitter excitedly behind her black framed glasses. The photo had been taken from far enough away to show the blue button up and light brown cardigan the woman was wearing. She looked like the last person to be qualified to be such a highly recommended bodyguard.

Even so, Lena looked up from her phone and rescanned the crowd for any sign of the woman. Cat had never steered her wrong before no matter how weird the journey was. And even if she was steering her wrong just this once, the fact that the woman had been able to pull the wool over Cat Grant’s eyes was enough of a recommendation in and of itself.

Before Lena could decide that the woman was a no show and she should just resign herself to fighting past the swarm of paparazzi, a loud commotion outside pulled her attention toward the aforementioned paparazzi. Instead of the expected camera flashes as they caught sight of her looking at them, Lena was met with the sight of two or three of the paparazzi on the ground while the rest of them looked down at them with expressions ranging from surprised to irritated. A man with a laptop case was sprawled out on the ground with the fallen paparazzi, but was being helped up by a woman in a leather jacket, apologizing profusely.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry,” the man was saying. “I really should pay more attention to where I’m going. My girlfriend is always telling me…”

Lena never found out what the man’s girlfriend was always telling him as someone next to her suddenly cleared their throat. She whipped her head around in surprise to find the blonde woman she had been waiting for standing next to her table wearing tan chinos and a deep blue button up. While she looked nothing like a bodyguard, Lena couldn’t deny that beneath all that cardiganed innocence, she looked hot.

“Ms. Luthor?” the woman asked. Lena just nodded in response. A smile immediately broke out over the woman’s face. “Kara Danvers,” she introduced. “Cat Grant sent me. We need to leave.”

“Leave?” Lena parroted, bewildered.

The woman, Kara, raised her eyebrow slightly. “Unless you’d like our meeting to be splashed across tonight’s front page.”

Lena quickly glanced back over her shoulder to where all of the paparazzi was still entangled with the man and his girlfriend. She knew that even with the man’s penchant for causing more trouble while trying to help, the paparazzi would be back to gawking at her in less than a minute.

She turned to Kara. “No.”

Kara’s smile returned. “Great. Follow me.”

Lena scrambled, in the most dignified and CEO worthy manner, out of her chair, leaving her coffee behind, and hurried after Kara.

The blonde looked over her shoulder to make sure Lena was following before leading her over to the side of the counter. As soon as they reached the door leading to behind the counter, one of the baristas swung it open for them.

“Thanks, Jordan,” Kara said, ushering Lena past her into the back.

“Anytime, Kara,” Jordan said, leading them to a door marked ‘Employees Only’ and letting them through that as well. “Tell Winn hi for me?”

“Of course,” Kara agreed with a grin before Jordan shut the door behind them.

“Where are we going?” Lena demanded as Kara led her through shelves of product. She itched to reach for her phone and call Cat. As much as she trusted her, she didn’t trust Kara and she felt uncertain about the change of location.

“To a less compromised position,” Kara readily answered. She came to a halt right in front of an unmarked door and paused dramatically, turning to look at her with a mischievous grin. “But first, the van.”

With that, Kara threw open the door to reveal a run of the mill black van parked in the alley on the other side. The itch to call Cat grew as she took the van in. It looked like any of the numerous unmarked vans that drove around the city every day. It also looked like any of the numerous unmarked vans that people got kidnapped in in the movies. Maybe that’s why Cat recommended them so much and sang them such high praises. Maybe they had Carter and were forcing Cat to help them kidnap her for her mother. Cat had always been a good actress.

Before she could spiral into full on panic mode, Clumsy Laptop Man and his girlfriend jogged up, apparently having extricated themselves from the paparazzi.

“Cutting it kind of close, don’t you think, Kara?” the woman asked, coming to a halt in front of them. The man stopped right next to her and seemed to stare at Lena in awe. Lena eyed him warily.

“Nobody got a picture, did they?” Kara asked, slightly alarmed.

“No. But we should’ve gotten a picture of their faces when they realized she was gone,” the woman said with a smirk, moving her way toward the driver’s side of the van. She paused before swinging up into the seat. “Priceless.”

A grin reappeared on Kara’s face as she turned back toward Lena. She pointed toward her phone still clutched in her hand. “If you want to call Ms. Grant, I’d suggest you do it now. We’re going to have to take your phone before we leave.”

Without waiting for a response, Kara turned toward Clumsy Laptop Man who was still staring at Lena in awe. “Come on, Winn,” Kara urged, obvious amusement in her voice as she started to steer him toward the van. “You can fanboy later.”

Lena eyed them warily as they walked over to the van. As soon as she was sure they weren’t paying attention, Lena turned so she could still see them out of the corner of her eye but still had a modicum of privacy. She blocked out what they were saying until it was nothing but background noise as she brought her phone up to her ear. Cat answered on the first ring.

“Cat Grant speaking.”

“Are you sure these are the people?” Lena demanded. She glanced over to where the trio was bickering slightly and tossing things back and forth with a fluid efficiency. “They look like gay, hipster wannabes.”

“Hello to you to, Lena,” Cat said. “Yes. That’s them. While you’re not far off the mark, they’ll do a good job.”

Lena turned away from the van some more and lowered her voice. “And they’re not forcing you to say that? Carter is safe and accounted for?”

Cat scoffed. “Carter is safe at school and the only time Keira has ever told me what to say was when I forgot somebody’s name at a gala.”

“Keira?” Lena asked in disbelief. She turned to look at Kara again, seeing her in a new light. “Your old assistant?”

“Don’t tell her I said this, but I really shouldn’t have let her go,” Cat said in reply. “Her replacements these last few years have been absolutely deplorable. I have half a mind to take your secretary.”

“You can’t have Jess," Lena replied automatically. “But really Cat? Your secretary?”

“You’ll find that she’s a lot more than meets the eye. At least give her a chance, Lena.”

Lena frowned slightly. She got the sense that Cat was referring to more than just hiring her as a bodyguard.

Before she could ask about it, someone cleared their throat behind her. Lena spun around to find Kara standing a few feet away looking slightly apologetic. Her mouth went slightly dry as she took in what Kara was now wearing; form fitting black jeans, a white t shirt, and a black leather jacket. If she hadn’t thought she was hot before, she definitely would now.

She was broken out of her gay haze as Kara spoke. “I’m sorry, Ms. Luthor, but we have to go.”

“Is that her?” Cat suddenly demanded. Lena could feel her cheeks heating up slightly as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t have and quickly schooled her features into something more becoming of a Luthor CEO.

“It is.”

“Put her on.”

Lena tried not to roll her eyes as she wordlessly held the phone out to Kara. Kara looked at her questioningly, a crinkle appearing between her eyebrows, as she just as wordlessly took the phone from her and brought it up to her ear.

“Ms. Grant?”

Cat’s voice immediately sounded out of the speakers, although Lena couldn’t tell what she was saying, broken only by Kara’s affirmative hums, ‘Yes, Ms. Grant’s, and ‘No, Ms. Grant’s.

“Ms. Luthor.”

Lena turned toward the sound of her name to find the other woman beckoning to her from outside the van as the man continued to rifle around in the back. Lena hesitated slightly, glancing over at the phone still pressed against Kara’s ear before remembering Cat’s words: “At least giver her a chance.” Lena hesitated only a split second longer before making her way over to the van, leaving Kara to her conversation.

“Here,” the woman said as she came closer. She held out a neatly folded stack of clothes. “Change into these. We want to make sure any stubbornly persistent paparazzi that have stuck around don’t recognize you.”

“Of course,” Lena agreed, smoothly taking the stack of clothes out of the woman’s hands. She immediately cast around for a more private place to change but before she could ultimately come up empty of any option other than behind the two overflowing dumpsters a ways down the alley, the woman banged sharply on the side of the van with her palm.

“Come on, Winn,” she ordered. “Give the girl some privacy.”

“One second,” Winn replied, his voice slightly muffled by the box he currently had his head in. “I just gotta-”

His protest was cut off by a tiny yelp of surprise as the woman reached in and bodily dragged him out of the back of the van.

“You can look for it after,” the woman said, pulling him over to where Kara was still on the phone.

Lena watched them go for a moment before stepping into the van as gracefully as her pencil skirt and heels would allow and shut the door. She was saved from being plunged into complete darkness by a modest bank of monitors strapped to the opposite wall of the van. Eight monitors were all split into four separate viewing windows showing footage from everything ranging from street and security cameras to what seemed to be button cameras. Lena felt her confidence in the three’s abilities boost slightly as she took in the sophisticated set up. They at least knew their way around surveillance equipment.

As soon as she was done with her inspection of their technological set up, she briskly started to change. She silently thanked the many times she had had to execute a quick change in the back of her car on the way to meetings as she exchanged her skirt and nylons for a pair of comfortable blue jeans and her blouse for a heather grey t shirt like Kara’s and a red flannel. She finished the change by shoving her feet into a pair of beat up Converse and sliding the van door open.

The three apparent bodyguards immediately halted their conversation and turned to look at her. A faint dusting of pink started to color Kara’s cheeks as the other woman gave out a low whistle.

“The paparazzi won’t know what hit them.”

“Maggie,” Kara reprimanded with a slap to the woman’s arm. Maggie winced and scowled at the blonde causing her to wince in apology. “Sorry.” She handed Lena’s cell phone over to Winn before continuing to talk to Maggie. Winn smiled at Lena as he clambered past her into the van and she stepped out. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we need the paparazzi to not notice her. Here. Winn.”

Lena moved over slightly as Kara leaned past her into the van, rummaging around slightly and talking to Winn. She finally emerged from the van with a triumphant shout.

“Here,” she offered with a large grin, holding something out for Lena to take.

Lena raised her eyebrow in question as she slowly reached out and took whatever it was from her. It immediately revealed itself to be a pair of square black rimmed glasses extremely similar to the ones still sitting on her desk in her office. At least she hoped they were still on her desk at her office.

Seeming to sense her reluctance, Kara quickly stepped in. “Don’t worry. We picked everything out based off photographs we could find on the internet.” She pointed to the glasses still in Lena’s hand. “Those are just glass.”

Lena didn’t take her eyes off Kara as she slowly reached up and slipped the glasses onto her face. Kara’s cheeks flushed even darker than before.

“Good going, Kara,” Maggie spoke up. “Put some glasses on her and she isn’t suddenly the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen?”

Lena couldn’t help but smirk as Kara started to stutter slightly, causing her to stutter even more. After a moment, Kara let out an indignant huff and reached back into the van. She quickly reemerged with a grey and red snapback and carefully set it backwards on Lena’s head. All three of them seemed to take a step back and admire her handiwork for a second.

“Sure, Kara,” Maggie finally said with an amused shake of her head. She started to make her way back to the driver’s side of the van. “Just make her look gayer.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Kara called after her.

“Don’t worry,” Winn interjected, holding his hand out toward Lena. She removed the snapback and glasses and handed them to him as he continued. “She’ll have her face covered for the ride over. The paparazzi should have dispersed a bit by now. You’re good to go.”

Before Lena could demand to know what he meant by having her face covered, Kara dragged the van door closed with a smile and an enthusiastic ‘Thanks, Winn’. As Kara turned to look at her, Lena jumped on the second best option for an answer.

“What did he mean by having my face covered?”

“Come on,” Kara said, jerking her head toward the mouth of the alley in lieu of a reply. “I’ll show you.”

With that, Kara turned and started to head toward the street, leaving Lena no choice but to follow. Even in the more sensible option of sneakers instead of heels, Lena didn’t catch up until Kara reached the mouth of the alley and peered around the corner to check for paparazzi.

Before Lena could take another stab at getting Kara to answer her, Kara stepped out onto the sidewalk and started to make her way down the street. Lena grit her teeth in irritation before quickly following after her.

They walked barely half a block before turning a corner and leaving the paparazzi behind. Parked about two cars down, was a black 2013 Suzuki V-Strom 1000. Kara led them right to it before grabbing something strapped to it and spinning around toward Lena. She held out a black motorcycle helmet for Lena to take.

“You ever ridden a motorcycle?” Kara asked. Lena nodded in affirmation as she took the helmet from her. “The visor is tinted,” she said, turning back toward the bike and grabbing her own helmet.

She slipped the helmet onto her head before grabbing the handlebars and smoothly mounting the bike. The bike roared to life underneath her, quickly quietening to a gentle rumble. Kara flipped the visor and chin bar of her motorcycle helmet up as she turned to look at Lena.

“You ready?” she asked gently.

Lena hesitated, looking down at the helmet gripped between her hands. The visor reflected her face back at her. She silently hoped the fear and anxiety she could see on her face wasn’t as obvious to Kara as it was to her. She closed her eyes to try and black it out, but the respite was short lived as the first headline from a week before flashed across her eyelids. She knew she was on her mother’s hit list. Nothing could stop her coming, but it would help if she could slow her down. Her thighs twinged uncomfortably and she fought the urge to rub them.

Instead, Lena smoothly slid the helmet onto her head, buckling it securely, before mounting the bike behind Kara and grabbing onto her jacket.

“Hold on tight,” Kara suggested, amusement evident in her voice even over the roar of the bike as she revved it. She slammed her visor and chin bar into place and they were off. Lena just hoped she had made the right choice.

\-----

Lena clung tightly around Kara’s waist as the blonde zipped through lunch hour traffic. Her grip tightened as Kara dangerously cut across another two lanes of traffic yet again so she could make a quick direction change or double back. She could feel Kara’s chuckle vibrate through her. It didn’t help her forget exactly how closely she was pressed against Kara’s back, but it did help her forget the nerve wracking experience that was Kara’s evasive driving. At least until Kara executed another sharp turn without warning, leaving a streak of rubber on the asphalt.

Thankfully, Kara pulled up in front of a small bistro a few minutes later. Lena waited until Kara killed the motor before dismounting and pulling her helmet off. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to comb out any of the matted tangles that had appeared on the ride over, as she turned toward Kara.

Kara dropped the kickstand and made sure the motorcycle was balanced before removing her own helmet. Lena scowled with jealousy as Kara shook her hair out like some model on television.

“I thought you said you’d ridden before?” Kara asked, taking Lena’s helmet and turning to lock up.

Lena allowed herself a slight grimace as the memory of Lex looking back at her from the motorcycle in front of her flashed through her mind. She quickly schooled her features into something more neutral as Kara turned back around, slipping the keys into her pocket.

“Not for a few years,” Lena admitted, hoping the pain of the memory didn’t shine through.

Kara just nodded as she started to lead Lena inside.

The bell above the door jingled merrily as Kara pulled it open for her. She looked around as she heard Kara motion toward the barista behind the bar. It was a quaint little place. A bar wrapped around the center of the room, surrounded by barstools and an assortment of two to four seater tables and booths littered throughout the room. A door across the room from the one they had entered led out to a small patio crammed with tables shaded by tasteful looking umbrellas.

“This way,” Kara directed quietly, motioning toward the other door.

Lena held her breath as they made their way across the room, waiting for the inevitable glares and staring that came with realizing the relation of two mass murderers was in the room.

It never came. The other patrons barely even glanced up from what they were doing as they made their way past them and outside.

Kara carefully wound her way through the tables until stopping next to one of her liking near the center of the patio and slightly off to the side. As Lena sat down in the chair Kara pulled out for her, she noticed both seats had an uninterrupted view of the entire patio, inside the bistro, and the front entrance of the whole establishment.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Kara said as she sat down in her own seat facing Lena, “I ordered you a coffee. You weren’t able to finish your last one.”

“It’s fine,” Lena assured, still looking around. “Where are we exactly?”

Kara looked at her slightly in surprise. “Noonan’s,” she answered. “Are you sure you know Ms. Grant? This is her coffee spot of choice. And lunch spot. And snack spot. And pretty much any form of food during her work day spot. I swear I was here at least twice a day every day I worked as her secretary.”

Lena raised her eyebrow slightly at Kara’s sudden word vomit. “I’ve known Cat for twenty years.”

Kara immediately blushed slightly and reached up to adjust her glasses nervously. “Right.”

They were saved from any further awkward conversation as the barista suddenly appeared next to their table.

“Here you go, Kara,” the barista said brightly, sliding a plate and two cups onto their table. “Two sticky buns and a hot chocolate for you and a black coffee with two sugars for the lady.”

Lena blinked in surprise at the sound of her perfect coffee order. Kara beamed up at the barista.

“Thanks, Kelly,” Kara said. “Just keep ‘em coming please. I’m not sure how long we’ll be here.”

“Of course,” Kelly agreed before turning and walking away.

Kara turned to look at Lena, her smile slipping slightly at the surprised look still on Lena’s face. Kara’s gaze flicked to Lena’s untouched coffee for a second, understanding immediately lighting up her eyes.

“Every day for two years,” Kara reiterated, picking up her fork and starting to cut into her sticky buns. “I know my way around coffee.” Kara took a large bit of her sticky bun. She quickly chewed and swallowed, letting out a happy sigh before attacking her sticky bun again and speaking. “But you’re not here about my old secretary job. I was under the impression you were looking for something a bit more serious than a secretarial position.” There was a slight pause before Kara suddenly froze, her forkful of sticky bun still only halfway up to her mouth. She looked up at Lena with a stricken expression on her face. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being a secretary. It’s a very important job. They help keep the company running as much as anybody else. Jess and your other three secretaries are great at their jobs.”

Uneasiness settled in Lena’s stomach. Cat had never bothered to learn about any of her other secretaries except for Jess and two of them were interns that weren’t listed as working closely with her in any capacity on any payrolls, websites, or anything else open for public consumption. Lena eyed Kara with renewed wariness.

Kara, realizing her mistake, looked down and cleared her throat. She quickly shoveled her forkful of sticky bun into her mouth and spoke around the bite. “Ms. Grant said you wanted protection,” she said as if that was a perfectly reasonable explanation for why she knew things she shouldn’t. “What did she tell you about us?”

Lena grabbed her coffee and took a sip, trying to decide how much information to divulge. She sighed slightly as she set her coffee back down, realizing that Cat hadn’t even given her enough information to be selective about. Plus it was really good coffee.

“She just told me she knew some people that could help,” Lena answered.

Kara nodded in satisfaction. “She does.”

“And you’re one of them?” Lena asked skeptically as Kara eagerly shoveled another large bite of sticky bun into her mouth. The only way she could see Kara protecting her from her mother was if Lillian Luthor had suddenly developed an irrational fear of people impersonating chipmunks.

Kara quickly swallowed and grinned, an excited and proud glint in her eye. “Yep,” she agreed. “Winn and Maggie are as well. And that couple just inside the door?” Lena frowned in confusion as she looked toward where Kara indicated to see a short haired brunette and a longer haired redhead on what looked like a date. She turned back to look at Kara as she started to explain. “Vasquez and Alex. The black guy at the counter?” Lena quickly found the man Kara was talking about, looking like he was having an extremely bad day with a half drunk beer in front of him and his tie hanging loose around his neck. “J’onn. The woman by the window with all the books?” Lena looked across the patio and the entire restaurant and saw the woman in question sitting at a booth by herself surrounded by a bunch of large books and notebooks and about five cups of coffee. “Lucy. James is also part of the team, but he stayed behind in the van with Winn so that--ah. Here’s Maggie.”

Just then, the front door to the bistro opened as a harried looking Maggie rushed in. Since Lena had last seen her, Maggie had discarded her jeans and leather jacket for a t shirt, cargo shorts, and a bicycle helmet. As she rushed to the counter, she grabbed something from the pack on her back. She handed whatever it was to the barista before hurrying back out.

“Unfortunately,” Kara said, prompting Lena to turn back to look at her, “Noonan’s ran out of Sharpies for their coffee cups today. They had to send for a bike messenger to get them more.”

“None of you look like bodyguards,” Lena said hesitantly.

“We wouldn’t be doing our jobs very well if we did,” Kara answered. She ate the last bite of her sticky bun and pushed her plate away, waving for Kelly to bring her another.

“You wouldn’t have jobs if you convinced all your potential employers you were merely motorcycle riders and bike messengers,” Lena pointed out.

A large grin immediately split across Kara’s face. “Us ex-cops and Marines have to find something to occupy our time.”

Lena nearly spat out the small sip of coffee she had just taken. There was no way Kara was being serious. She narrowed her eyes slightly as if that would somehow make it easier to envision the bubbly, innocent looking blonde in front of her as a cop. Marine was pushing it. She still couldn’t see it.

Before she could actually verbally ask if she was being serious or not, Kelly suddenly appeared at their table.

“Here’s another two sticky buns for you Kara,” Kelly said, sliding the plate in front of her before grabbing the other one. “And here’s some napkins.”

“Thank you, Kelly,” Kara said with a smile, taking the napkins from her. Kelly smiled back before turning and walking away again. “Here. She gave me two.”

Before Lena could politely refuse, Kara slid one of the napkins across the table toward her. Manners that Lillian had been drilling into her since she was four had her reaching across the table for it.

Lena froze as she felt something foreign underneath the napkin. She carefully grabbed it and slipped it into her lap, pretending to spread her napkin there. She immediately recognized the object as a thumb drive.

“If you don’t believe me, take a look at our CV,” Kara said. “If you don’t believe that, hack whatever government agency you need to.” She ate a bite of her sticky bun with a smirk.

Lena raised an eyebrow in surprise and then both eyebrows in alarm as Kara suddenly choked on her sticky bun. She let out a sharp cough before grabbing her hot chocolate and downing half of it in one gulp.

“She was going to hack them anyway,” Kara mumbled as she set her cup down.

Lena frowned in confusion before glancing over at the people Kara had pointed out previously. J’onn’s scowl had deepened and Lucy was shaking her head at her books. The redhead of the couple, Lena couldn’t tell which was which name wise, was ranting angrily, the other woman nodding along with a weird mixture of disapproval and amusement on her face.

Kara reached up and rubbed her ear as if it itched. Lena could practically feel the redhead’s anger and disapproval intensifying.

“Either way,” Kara said cheerfully as if she hadn’t been seriously chewed out via earpiece. “Feel free to look through it.” She shoveled the last few bites of sticky bun into her mouth. “If you don’t like what you see, call the number on there and you’ll never see us again. If you do like what you see, don’t call and we’ll see you at eleven tonight in your office. Make sure your helipad is clear.” She downed the rest of her chocolate and wiped her face with her napkin. “I also suggest you order a coffee to go before you try and call your driver.”

With that, Kara abruptly stood up and tossed her napkin onto her empty plate. “It was nice seeing you, Lena,” she said before walking away.

Lena watched her as she stopped at the bar to pay for their food and then exited the bistro. Not long after, the sound of a motorcycle roaring to life reached her ears. A few moments later, Kara went screaming by the windows on her motorcycle. Even from a distance and with her helmet on, Lena could tell Kara was smiling at her before disappearing into traffic.

Lena remained where she was sitting, thinking. She eyed the other bodyguards, trying to decide on another course of action. They had done nothing but impress her so far. Cat’s smirk at her Navy SEALs comment the week before suddenly made sense. They were a bit more dramatic than what she was thinking, but still.

She reached out and grabbed her coffee as she deliberated, bringing it up to her lips for another sip. She immediately pulled it back as she realized it was absolutely empty. She frowned down at the cup in disappointment. She’d be getting that coffee to go after all. Though she had to admit that Kara hadn’t made it sound like a suggestion.

Lena smoothly stood up from the table, brushing her pants off as an excuse to slip the thumb drive into her pants pocket. As she made her way inside, she couldn’t help but eye the four curiously. None of them even acknowledged that she existed, treating her as if she was another stranger in the room.

“One coffee to go please,” Lena asked as she reached the counter. “Black. Two sugars.”

“One moment,” Kelly said. Lena looked around the bistro as she waited. The more she took in, the more she saw why Cat liked it.

She was brought out of her inspection by a cup being offered to her.

“Here you go,” Kelly said. “Kara already paid for it.”

“Oh. Thank you,” Lena said as she took the cup from Kelly.

She frowned slightly as she felt the odd weight, but before she could ask about it, Kelly turned away to go help another customer. Lena paused for a second before shrugging and turning to leave. A heavy cup of coffee was not the weirdest thing she had encountered that morning.

As she made her way outside, she lifted the cup up to her lips. Instead of getting a sip of really good coffee, Lena nearly dropped her cup as it suddenly vibrated in her hand. She immediately halted in her tracks and ripped the lid off to reveal the contents. She stared inside it in shock for a few moments before checking to see that no one was looking. As soon as she was sure the coast was clear, she reached inside her cup and pulled out the plastic Ziploc bag submerged in her coffee. Brown liquid dripped off the bag and onto the sidewalk as she held it out in front of her. Inside was her cell phone, the screen lit up with a text from Kara that read, ‘See you tonight’ with a bunch of emojis. Lena could only stare until the screen went black.

Who the hell were these people?

\-----

Lena didn’t look up from her laptop as the door to her office opened.

“I told you to go home a long time ago, Jess.”

“I should hope so,” a voice that was decidedly not Jess’s replied from the doorway. Lena nearly gave herself whiplash as she looked up to find Kara standing in her doorway with a smug grin on her face. “I hated staying late when I worked for Ms. Grant.”

“I told you to record Homeland so you wouldn’t miss anything,” the redhead Lena now knew to be Alex said as she walked past Kara into the room, Vasquez right behind her.

Kara scowled. “You would just spoil it for me before I could even watch it,” she said, following Alex and Vasquez deeper into the room.

The sisters immediately fell into light hearted bickering, but Lena turned her attention back to the door as the rest of the team entered. She was glad to see that all of them looked a lot less civilian than they had that afternoon. Except for Winn, who was still wearing the same button up and slacks.

Alex and Kara grew silent as the last person entered and shut the door behind them. Lena watched as J’onn slowly made his way into the center of the room until he came to a stop in front of her desk, the rest of them lined up behind him. Lena blocked out the man named James’s glare and Kara’s incessant bouncing on the balls of her feet as J’onn began to speak.

“Thank you for clearing your helipad for us, Ms. Luthor,” he said.

Lena nodded her head slightly. “While my head of security did find it a strange request, it was easy enough to arrange.” Lena cocked her eyebrow slightly in question. “And continue to be arranged if need be.”

“That’s up to you, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena dragged her gaze over the ensemble of eight in front of her. J’onn, Vasquez, Lucy, and Alex all wore black tactical gear and nearly identical neutral masks. Maggie wore a bulletproof vest underneath her leather jacket that was slightly hidden by her crossed arms. James wore what looked like full body armor and a glare that would have killed her the first second he had walked in the door if looks could kill. Kara was dressed in a deep blue flight suit, her hair pulled back so nothing could hinder the whole room from experiencing her wide smile. Other than that smile and Winn, Lena had to admit that they looked loads more convincing than they had that afternoon. But not as convincing as their CV had made them out to be.

Lena turned her chair so it was facing the monitor mounted on her wall and pressed a button on her remote. Five military photos, one police academy photo, and two press pass photos appeared on her screen, all displaying younger versions of the people in front of her.

“Your CVs are certainly impressive,” Lena commented, turning back to look at them.

A slight hesitation held the room for a second as if they were all waiting for something. Lena decided not to give it to them. It was too early in the conversation to admit of any wrongdoing she may or may not have partaken in while looking at their CVs. She couldn’t win their trust if she told them she had hacked the government, even if Kara did give her permission.

Lena swore she saw money change hands.

“I’m glad they were to your liking, Ms. Luthor,” J’onn said as if there hadn’t been a pause.

Lena nodded slowly. “I trust Cat told you the job?”

“Protection from your mother,” J’onn answered readily.

Lena hesitated slightly, taking in everything from James’s continuously deepening scowl and Kara’s excited smile. While Cat had assured her that nothing she said would get out even if they didn’t enter into a contract, Cat hadn’t known exactly what she would be asking for. Her mind flashed to Maxwell Lord’s name on the list of people they had worked for in the past. There was no way what they did for him was legal. Lena hoped she was correct in her assumption.

“That would only be half the job,” she corrected.

A slight ripple went through the eight in front of her.

“And what is the other half?” J’onn asked cautiously.

Lena didn’t allow herself any time for second guessing. “I want you to find her and kill her before she can kill me.”

The reaction was instantaneous. James’s glare twisted even deeper. Winn’s jaw dropped in shock. Lucy and Maggie tensed. J’onn and Vasquez remained stoic. Alex glanced at Kara and Kara stopped her bouncing to look at Lena with a sad sort of resignation as if she had been in Lena’s shoes and had hoped Lena would choose differently. It made Lena wonder what exactly was in Kara’s past to make her feel that way.

“That will cost extra,” J’onn finally said.

“Name your price,” Lena said, leaning back in her chair, all her uncertainty disappearing. If there was one things she knew, it was negotiation. Lionel Luthor had made sure of that.

“Half a million each,” J’onn replied without missing a beat. “All upfront.”

Lena immediately shook her head. “Half now and half after.”

“You’d be hard pressed to find other companies willing to be hired by you,” J’onn pointed out. Lena couldn’t be sure, but he seemed to almost say it somewhat kindly as if trying to soften the blow of the truth.

It still hit her like a punch in the gut, but she took it in stride and raised her eyebrow challengingly. “Do any of you, as Kara so aptly put it this afternoon, have anything else to occupy your time?”

They all seemed to shift slightly. Lena suddenly got the impression that they were silently communicating with one another.

“Half now, half after,” J’onn agreed. “Lucy will write up a contract tonight and one of us will bring it to you to look over tomorrow. In the meantime, Ms. Luthor, would you like us to fly you home.”

Lena had to fight the urge to blink in surprise. She had been expecting a lot more negotiating. One more bid for what they wanted at least. Lena suspected that she was only beginning to scratch the surface of the surprises the team had to offer.

On the bright side, the surprise of winning so easily kept the familiar swoop of fear out of her stomach at the thought of being up in the air.

She quickly pulled herself together and shook her head. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m going to have to decline,” Lena said, motioning around her office slightly. “You’d just have to fly back here and that would just be a waste of fuel and time.”

A ripple of equal parts surprise and smugness went through the eight people in front of her. She could’ve sworn she saw more money change hands.

“In that case, Ms. Luthor,” J’onn said, pulling her attention away from the bets being collected behind him, “we would greatly appreciate for the helipad to remain clear for the remainder of our stay.”

“Consider it done.”

J’onn inclined his head gratefully. “Thank you. We’ll have someone come by with the contract as soon as we can tomorrow. Good night, Ms. Luthor.”

“Good night,” Lena replied as they all turned on their heels and filed out. Kara turned right as she reached the door and sent her a blinding smile before closing the doors behind them.

Lena was suddenly left alone in her office again with her thoughts. She turned back toward the screen on her wall and took in the eight faces looking back at her. She took a breath and tried to prepare for what was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey sports fans and non sports fans, Sorry this took so long to get out. Between being a full time college student and having a part time job, I don't really have too much time to write, but I promise I'll try and get these out with as regular a schedule and as quick a pace as I can. I've already started on chapter three so hopefully that one won't take as long to get out, but I also have three large papers due this week, so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoyed chapter two. Feel free to leave kudos and comments. I live for 'em. Hope y'all have a good day, night, afternoon, morning. See you later alligators.


	3. 5 August 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Midterms! I just love them so much.
> 
> I shouldn't use so much sarcasm. I may hurt myself. I wonder if injury due to excess sarcasm use is an acceptable excuse for missing class. Probably not. Just kidding kids. Go to class.
> 
> On a less sarcastic note, I hope you guys love this chapter as much as I don't love midterms. (Which is a lot.)

“Ms. Luthor,” Jess’s voice sounded over the intercom. “There’s a Ms. Danvers here to see you.”

Lena wondered which Ms. Danvers it was as she pressed the intercom. “Show her in please, Jess.” She sat back and eyed the large stack of reports she had been working on and the already going limp salad Jess had brought in for lunch an hour before. She really hoped it was Kara. She didn’t think she could deal with a prickly Alex.

She got her question answered a few moments later as Jess opened her office door, Kara practically bounding in behind her, a packet of papers clutched in her hands.

“Thanks, Jess,” Kara said, sending her a megawatt smile.

Jess looked torn between smiling back and glaring in annoyance until she caught sight of the uneaten salad on Lena’s desk, her expression turning to one of resignation.

“Your next appointment is at one-thirty, Ms. Luthor,” Jess said as she came forward and picked up the salad. She turned around and looked pointedly at Kara.

Kara gave a sharp nod in response, her smile never wavering. “I’ll be quick,” she promised as Jess walked by her on her way out the door.

As soon as Jess closed the door behind her, Lena turned her full attention to Kara. “What can I do for you, Ms. Danvers?”

“Lucy finished the contract,” Kara answered. She lifted the stack of papers she was holding before setting it down on Lena’s desk. Lena reached forward and pulled it toward her, careful of all the other stacks of papers in her way.

She quickly skimmed through the twenty page contract, taking note of all the main points. She had to hand it to Lucy; she really knew how to write a contract.

“Everything seems to be in order,” Lena commented as she looked back up at Kara. “But I’m going to have to have some time to fully look over it.”

“Of course,” Kara said brightly. “If you have any questions, feel free to come up and ask or you can wait until our Monday meetings which are outlined in the contract and already cleared with Jess.” Kara paused slightly and cleared her throat nervously, fidgeting with her glasses. “We just request that outside of us you only discuss this with Jess. As a matter of confidentiality. We’re sure your employees are all great, but we don’t know any of them and we’d like to keep this as low profile as we can for your and our safety.

“But you know Jess?” Lena asked, raising her eyebrow slightly.

Kara immediately flushed, fidgeting with her glasses again. “There was a-uh-once a month all the secretaries of high profile CEOs in the city get together for lunch. Talk shop, trade tips, complain, things like that.”

Lena raised her eyebrow, more amused than anything, as Kara paused. Her eyes widened in alarm as she realized what she’d said. Lena was torn between laughing at the look on Kara’s face and being dazzled by the blue of her eyes as she started stuttering.

“Except for Jess. Jess was great. She never--she loves working for you,” Kara said quickly. “Never a bad thing to say. The others though…” Kara blew out a breath and raised her eyebrows. “Complete whiners. But Jess--Jess was great. You’re great. Boss! You’re a great boss. According to Jess. I’ve only been working for you for a day. Which has been great. Really great. Not that I’ll find something to complain about going--”

Kara was suddenly cut off mid ramble as Lena’s intercom crackled to life.

“Ms. Luthor,” Jess announced, “you’re one-thirty is here.”

Lena leaned over her intercom and replied, “Thank you, Jess. Please wait a minute and then show him in.”

“Of course, Ms. Luthor,” Jess said.

Lena switched her intercom off and looked back at Kara, glad to see that her face was starting to fade back to it’s more normal shade of not embarrassed white. “Is there anything else you needed Ms. Danvers?” Lena asked.

“Only to tell you that Winn and Vasquez will be in after this meeting to set up some surveillance,” Kara said, adjusting her glasses.

Lena nodded, getting up to accompany Kara to the door. “Hopefully this meeting won’t take long,” she said. “He’s been bugging me for a week for a meeting so I’m hoping to get him out the door as fast as possible if only to get him out of my hair.”

“I’ll ask Jess to inform me when he leaves then,” Kara said with a smile. They came to a stop in front of the door, neither one moving to open it as Kara continued. “And if he gives you any trouble, don’t hesitate to call us down. We’re here to protect you from everything, not just your mother.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Ms. Danvers. Thank you.”

Kara’s smile brightened. Lena couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on her face in return as she opened the door.

The rare smile quickly turned into a confused frown as Kara’s smile morphed into a full blown scowl. Honestly Lena was just thankful to find that Kara was able to display that emotion even as she cast around for what had caused the drastic turnaround in the blonde’s mood.

She didn’t have to look very far as Kara backed up enough to let Mr. Clark Kent step into her office. Lena looked behind him to find Jess standing in the doorway looking just as confused as she felt.

“Ms. Danvers,” Clark greeted, a vaguely hostile familiarity in his voice as he obviously tried to keep up the warm Kansas farm boy routine that charmed many others and failed.

Kara was obviously having none of it as she replied back in a tone both ice cold in its hostility and scorching hot in its anger. “Mr. Kent,” Kara said evenly.

“I should have known I’d find you here,” Clark said, his smile looking more like a grimace. “You never can stay out of trouble, can you?” Lena bristled at the almost scolding tone of Clark’s words.

“I could say the same for you, Mr. Kent,” Kara said before Lena could step in. Lena couldn’t tell if her stepping in would even do much good. Both Kara and Clark seemed to only have eyes for each other. And not in a good way. “Here to write an article?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. The public wants to know how Ms. Luthor feels about her mother’s escape from prison.”

“You mean you want to tell the public about Ms. Luthor’s supposed hand in Lillian Luthor’s escape.”

“If that’s where the truth takes me.” Clark raised an eyebrow. “Is that where the truth will take me, Ms. Danvers?”

“You know as well as I do that it won’t. You have enough evidence to know that not everyone turns out like their families, Mr. Kent.”

Lena suddenly got the distinct impression that neither one of them were fully talking about her anymore.

“That evidence still has plenty of time and potential to prove itself wrong,” Clark said.

Kara’s eyes seemed to flash red as she took a step forward, raising her hand up threateningly. Before she could actually do anything though, the rest of the team burst through the door Lena was still holding open and nearly bowled her over. A flash of panic went through her as her legs stopped supporting her. Before she could completely panic, J’onn quickly grabbed her so she wouldn’t fall as everybody else converged on Clark and Kara. Maggie and Lucy jumped between the pair; Maggie facing Kara and Lucy facing Clark. James and Winn hauled Clark back and nearly out the door as Alex and Vasquez did the same with Kara, pulling her deeper into the office.

“Case and point,” Clark said triumphantly, shrugging off James and Winn’s hands.

“Back off,” Alex snapped as Kara wrenched herself out of Alex and Vasquez’s hold.

J’onn let go of Lena and stepped in front of her slightly as if he was afraid a physical fight was about to break out. With the way Clark and Kara were glaring at each other, Lena couldn’t blame him.

“I believe this interview is over,” J’onn said, his voice commanding. “James. Maggie. Please escort Mr. Kent downstairs.”

James gently reached forward and clasped Clark on the shoulder. Lena was suddenly hit with a sickening feeling of recognition. She couldn’t feel too bad about not recognizing him sooner since Lena had only met Clark Kent’s best friend and sidekick, Jimmy Olsen, once. They also had removed any connection with him from James’s file and Lena hadn’t thought of looking deeper into a mere photojournalist when she was hacking into their past employers.

She looked over at Lucy, suddenly making the connection between her last name and that of Clark Kent’s wife. She was slightly more embarrassed with how long it took for that one. Even with her connection to Lois Lane practically scrubbed from the records, how common was the surname Lane?

A bolt of uneasiness shot through her. While she could now for sure say they weren’t going to eventually turn on her and side with Lillian, she couldn’t say they wouldn’t just let Lillian have her and then take Lillian out as well in a two Luthors with one trap situation.

After a moment of resistance, Clark relaxed slightly under James’s touch. He threw one last glare at Kara, nodded to Lucy, and then exited. James and Maggie quickly followed.

J’onn waited a few seconds before turning toward Kara. “Kara. Go cool off in the ship. Alex. Go with her to make sure she does.”

Kara stalked out without a word of protest, Alex hot on her heels. J’onn waited another few second before turning around to face Lena, stepping back slightly to give her space.

“Are you alright, Ms. Luthor?”

Lena nodded. “You did an admirable job of keeping me from harm,” Lena assured.

“I apologize, Ms. Luthor,” J’onn said. “Due to who usually hires us, we’ve had run ins with Mr. Kent before. As you can see, unlike most of the rest of America, Kara doesn’t like him all that much.”

“I think Kara and I will get along just fine.” Lena eyed Lucy warily. “I’m not sure I can say the same for two of your other colleagues.”

Lucy straightened up under the scrutiny. “You’ll find that mine and my sister’s, and subsequently her husband’s, views don’t alway align.”

Lena studied her for a second. Speaking like a true lawyer, Lucy hadn’t exactly told her anything. But she hadn’t told her she hated her and wanted her to die either so Lucy was either a great actress or didn’t actually hate her. Nobody hid their contempt and hatred for her and the Luthors. They made sure she knew exactly how much they hated her. Like James.

“And James?” she asked, looking back at J’onn.

“Won’t be a problem either,” J’onn promised. “We take your safety very seriously, Ms. Luthor, and won’t let anything compromise that.”

Lena eyed J’onn for a few moments, sizing him up. He didn’t seem to be lying, but his neutral expression was giving nothing away. And he had jumped to protect her from the threat of a possible physical altercation.

She glanced over at the others left in the room. Vasquez and Lucy were just as stone faced as J’onn while Winn just looked uncertain. Her thoughts turned toward Kara and her obvious hostility of Clark. Alex hadn’t seemed all that fond of him either. While that didn’t necessarily mean they liked Luthors, it certainly meant they didn’t like the Luthor’s enemy. And an enemy of the enemy was a friend, right? Lena decided it was worth the shot.

Besides, it wasn’t like she had a backup plan. She cursed her mother’s unfailing ability to make her feel helpless as she nodded.

J’onn nodded back. “How would you feel about me leaving Vasquez and Winn here to work on surveillance?”

“I have no objection as long as they clear everything with me first,” Lena responded.

“Of course,” J’onn agreed. “Lucy with me.”

With that, J’onn turned and started to leave the office, Lucy quickly falling in step next to him and beginning to talk. As soon as they crossed the threshold, Jess darted inside, closing the door behind her.

“Are you alright, Ms. Luthor?” Jess asked urgently as she hurried over to her side.

Lena nodded and started to make her way to her desk, Jess following close behind. Making sure Jess couldn’t see her, Lena rubbed her thigh slightly, brow furrowing worriedly.

Before Lena could get very close to her desk, a low clearing of a throat stopped her in her tracks. She turned to see Vasquez and Winn still standing behind her. She mentally smacked her forehead as she realized she had forgotten they were there. Honestly, one non life threatening altercation and suddenly she was frazzled. She had seriously lost her touch since she last went up against her mother. Maybe she should schedule drills or something. Put out a hit on herself to keep her on her toes.

Lena was pulled from her disastrously idiotic train of thought as Winn vaguely motioned toward the couch and coffee table in the corner.

“Can we…?”

“Of course,” Lena allowed. She pointed toward her desk and turned to start walking towards it again. “I’ll be at my desk if you need anything.”

A huge grin immediately lit Winn’s features before he turned and started to make his way to the coffee table, unslinging his laptop case from his shoulder and motioning for Vasquez to follow him at the same time.

Lena waited until she was sure both of them weren’t paying attention to her before making her way to her desk, Jess close behind.

“Jess,” she said quietly to make sure Winn and Vasquez didn’t hear. “Please call security downstairs and make sure Mr. Kent isn't allowed up in the future. Or anyone from the Daily Planet for that matter." She didn't know how her new hires knew Mr. Kent, but since all he did was write for the Daily Planet and his old pal, Jimmy Olsen, was on the team, she was going to guess it was from there. She wasn’t going to take any chance of them having beef with any other Daily Planet reporters and getting into any more surprise altercations.

Lena picked up the contract where she had left it on her desk and handed it to Jess. “Read that over as well please. Mark anything you think needs to be changed.” She pulled one of the various reports littering her desk toward her to replace the contract and sighed. “And please cancel my appointments for the rest of the day.”

“Would you like me to contact PR?”

Lena paused, thinking. It would be a good idea to get ahead of whatever Clark was going to write for his article. The last thing she needed to get out was that her new bodyguards were a bunch of hotheads that liked to pick fights. Not only would it further spoil her reputation in the eyes of the public, she would lose the element of surprise over her mother and that was really all she had over her mother at the moment. She also didn’t need to be accused of helping her mother.

Before Lena could answer Jess, another voice joined the conversation.

“You don’t have to do that.”

Lena and Jess turned to find Winn hovering a little ways away from the desk, clutching his laptop to his chest. Lena raised her eyebrow in slight irritation at being interrupted, but he would obviously have more insight into the situation than she would.

“Do what, Mr. Schott?” Lena asked.

“Contact PR,” he answered, taking a slight step closer to the desk. “Clark won’t write an article. At least not one that you have to worry about.”

Lena noted the use of Mr. Kent’s first name and sat back in her chair, in full CEO mode. “And what makes you say that?”

“Well, Clark didn’t get a quote from you or anything. He has just as much information as everybody else and while you,” Winn visibly swallowed nervously, “may not like what he writes, he never writes anything he doesn’t have evidence for. Which means he’s writing exactly what everybody else is writing and you’ve survived that so far.

“And he knows better than to write about any of us in his articles after last time.”

“‘Last time’?” Lena inquired, hoping she didn’t sound as intrigued as she felt. Maybe ‘last time’ was why Clark and Kara weren’t on good terms.

“Yeah,” Winn grimaced, rubbing the back of his head. “Kara threatened to rain all sorts of hell on him if he ever mentioned us in an article again after--”

Whatever he was going to say next was lost as Vasquez suddenly cleared her throat, an obvious warning for him not to continue. Winn winced slightly at the sound and turned to look at Vasquez apologetically, making a circular motion with his fist over his chest.

Lena glanced at Jess who only shrugged subtly in response. She flicked her gaze back to Winn as he turned to face her again. Even with all the secrecy, Lena had to admit his logic seemed sound. Mr. Kent never did write anything untruthful even if he still managed to find other ways to be scathing and the safety of her security team, and by extension her, seemed to be intact if Winn was to believed. They hadn’t been wrong yet, so Lena decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Jess, don’t call PR just yet,” Lena requested. Lena could tell Jess didn’t fully agree, but her secretary just nodded before turning and starting to walk out. “Now, Mr. Schott, did you need anything?”

Winn startled slightly as if just remembering he had come up to the desk for a reason and stepped forward.

“I was wondering if I could get access to your cameras.” He waved his hand around to signify the entirety of her office.

“May I ask why?” Lena asked, eyeing his laptop.

“We’d like to place some panic buttons around your office. We’ll connect them to our tablets and your camera feed so that if you press one, all of us will immediately be able to see the room and assess the situation so we can come in and keep you safe in the best way possible. Other than that, the feeds won’t be monitored,” Winn answered readily.

Lena hesitated barely a second before holding her hand out for his laptop. It would be stupid to hire them to protect her and not give them the tools to do so. Winn grinned wide and handed her his laptop.

She pushed away the report she had pulled toward her earlier and set the laptop in front of her, quickly skimming over what was on the screen to figure out exactly what he needed. She paused as she realized what she was looking at.

“Did you try to hack into my camera feed?” Lena asked, looking up at Winn.

Winn immediately froze, his gaze darting everywhere but at her and looking like the poster child of guilty looks. “No.”

Lena raised her eyebrow in amused skepticism before turning back to his laptop. She honestly couldn’t tell whether to be angry or impressed. He had gotten much further than she thought he would. She decided on impressed as she started to type the last few things he needed into the laptop.

“Here,” she said after a moment, sliding the laptop across her desk toward Winn.

He eagerly grabbed it and spun it toward him, drinking in her additions. His eyebrows rose up in surprise and excitement as he took it in.

“Wow,” he breathed. He quickly waved over his shoulder in a beckoning gesture. He moved to the side for Vasquez as she suddenly appeared in front of the desk. “I feel like Scotty when Old Spock gave him the equation for transwarp beaming.”

“Promise not to hack into my stuff again and I’ll teach you some more, my young padawan,” Lena said.

Winn’s face immediately lit up with excitement. “You more of a Star Wars fan?” Winn asked, excitement over her camera security momentarily forgotten in lieu of excitement over her nerd status. Vasquez continued to study the laptop. Lena nodded. “Awesome,” Winn said, bouncing on the tip of his toes excitedly. “I’m more of a Trekkie myself. I love everything about it. Except the Animated Series, but who did, really? And I will admit, I have tried to build a functioning lightsaber.”

“Tried?” Lena asked teasingly, a smirk pulling at her lips.

Winn stopped bouncing mid bounce, his jaw dropping and eyes widening in shock.

“Wait. Have you…?”

Lena just nodded, mirth and excitement rising up inside her as Winn practically vibrated with excitement. He looked ready to either pass out or bombard her with questions.

Before he could do either of those things, Vasquez tapped him on the elbow and pointed to his laptop.

“Right. Work,” he said, obviously still distracted. He picked up his laptop and turned toward the coffee table slightly. “You’ve gotta show me that lightsaber sometime. Please.”

“Promise not to hack my stuff and you’ve got yourself a deal,” Lena bargained.

“I’d stop hacking the Pentagon for this,” Winn enthused. “Deal.”

Lena couldn’t help but smile as Winn finally turned and hurried over to the couch and sitting down next to Vasquez, the excitement still rolling off of him in waves even as they started to work on putting up the panic buttons.

Lena pulled another report toward her and started to read it over, shaking her head at Winn’s enthusiasm. Maybe she and Winn would get along just fine too.

\-----

Lena pushed away the last report and rubbed her temples, trying to dispel the headache that had appeared an hour before. She glanced at the clock and groaned at the time. Midnight. She got up from her desk and started to make her way to her drinks cabinet. Between the butchered meeting with Clark Kent and all the reports she had had to go through, she deserved a drink. Or two.

She poured herself two fingers of scotch, relishing in the burn of it as she took a sip. She turned back to the room at large and took in the mess she had created in the last few hours. Papers were strewn across the desk and coffee table. Her laptop was still sitting open on her desk and next to the wilted and sad looking salad Jess had set there before she had left at eight o’clock.

Lena felt her headache grow at the sight. She didn’t want to deal with cleaning up at the moment. She grabbed the bottle of scotch and made her way out onto the balcony, closing her laptop on the way out.

She set her bottle on the ledge and kept her glass in her hand as she leaned against the railing. She took a deep breath of the warm night air. While it didn’t have the same head clearing abilities of the cooler summer night air in Metropolis, Lena decided she’d take what she could get as her headache eased slightly.

She took another sip of her scotch as she looked out over National City. From her vantage point, she could see a large part of National City, light still twinkling in a lot of business towers and traffic steadily moving beneath her. She could just see the glow of the cluster of bars and clubs across the city behind the buildings. She was so high up, the traffic still making its way past L-Corp was practically silent. The occasional horn or siren reached her but Lena was content to stand back and take in the lights, basking in the relative silence.

So of course it was shattered.

“I knew I’d find you out here.”

Lena jerked and nearly knocked her bottle of scotch off the ledge and plummeting the thirty stories to the sidewalk below. She quickly righted the bottle and cast around for the intruder. Her heartbeat pounded against her ribs as she scanned her office, coming up empty. She started to slowly make her way to one of the panic buttons Winn and Vasquez had installed that afternoon. She could call her normal building security up, but they would take longer to get to her and she was paying her new security team an obscene amount of money so she may as well make them work for it.

She stopped a few steps away from the balcony door as another voice reached her ears.

“I needed to clear my head.”

Lena took a step back toward the balcony railing as she realized the voices were coming from above her on the roof. They were also far from hostile; more comforting and weary respectively.

“You don’t have to explain it to me.”

Lena took another step toward the railing, making sure she was still under the overhang and couldn’t be seen if whoever was standing there looked down. Not that anybody should be standing that close to the edge, but the last thing Lena needed was to be caught eavesdropping on who she assumed was her protection detail.

“What did James say after I left?”

Lena suddenly recognized the speaker as Kara, the weariness pulling at her words a juxtaposition to the overly cheerful and energetic demeanor she seemed to adopt most often. Lena couldn’t blame her though after the day she had had. She guessed the other speaker was Alex as she spoke again.

“Much of the same really,” Alex said. “Shy of calling you crazy, he said Clark was right and we shouldn’t be guarding Lena Luthor. The only good Luthor is a dead Luthor and all that.”

Lena smothered her sharp inhale with her hand as the words hit her like a kick in the chest. She had known James didn’t like her, but hearing the words spoken so candidly? She grabbed her bottle of scotch and poured herself another two fingers. She wasn’t drunk enough for that.

“He knows he can leave whenever he wants, right?”

“You know that’s the last thing he’s going to do. He’s sticking around to protect us all from our stupidity.”

“Ours, or just mine?”

“No one’s saying that,” Alex immediately protested. There was a pause. Lena could practically see the skeptical look Kara was probably sending Alex. “They’re not saying that,” Alex insisted.

“Just give it to me straight, Alex.”

“I’ll try, but you know me. No promises.” There was another pause. Lena guessed Kara’s expression was more unamused than skeptical this time around.

Finally, Alex just sighed. “Winn’s obviously torn. You and James are his best friends and Clark and Lena are his idols. He’s just trying not to pick sides. Although if Luthor pulls another stunt like the lightsaber thing this afternoon, we all know who’s side he’s going to be on.

“Maggie doesn’t know Clark, but she’s heard what people say about the Luthors and him. However, you haven’t steered her too wrong in the past, so she’s willing to trust you on this for now.

“Lucy and J’onn are obviously going to take your side over Clark’s any day even if they do think he’s right and you’re making a huge mistake.

“And Vasquez has, unsurprisingly, planned for both outcomes, but will follow you anywhere.”

Kara snorted. “More like she’d follow you anywhere. Rao, she’s whipped.”

“Hey,” Alex exclaimed indignantly. “That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about.”

“Don’t worry. You’re whipped too,” Kara assured.

Alex only hummed in affirmation before the pair fell quiet. Lena held her breath, afraid to shatter the silence and get caught eavesdropping. Although, if she didn’t loosen her grip on her glass, she’d be shattering a lot more than silence.

After a few moments, the happy serenity of the atmosphere turned serious again.

“And what do you think, Alex?”

There was a beat before Alex sighed heavily. “I don’t trust Luthor as far as you could throw her. I don’t know her well enough yet, but I understand why you’re doing this and I’ll support you as long as you need it. I’m with you ‘till the end of the line. Just, whatever happens, Kara, remember, you’re better than them. No matter what happens, that will not change.”

There was a tense silence before Kara let out a relieved breath. “Thanks, Alex.”

Alex’s voice was slightly muffled as if she was pressed against something as she replied. “I love you, Kara.”

“I love you too, Alex.”

Lena backed up slightly, feeling uncomfortable with overhearing such an intimate moment. Her heart ached as she recalled a time when that had been her and Lex. She couldn’t remember the last time he had hugged her and told her he loved her. She wished she could go back. Would she have done something differently if she had known it would be the last time? Would she hold on a little longer? Would she try to memorize everything so that she would never forget? Would she try harder to keep him from going down the path he eventually went down?

She was pulled from her dreary thoughts as Alex spoke.

“Now in the spirit of our love, I’ve gotta tell you that you look like shit.”

Kara snorted. “Wow. Thanks.”

Alex laughed, her voice starting to fade as she seemed to walk away. “Anytime. Now go get some sleep. You deserve it. J’onn and Maggie are about to take watch.”

“I’ll be in in a moment,” Kara promised. “You get some sleep too. You need it.”

“I will. Good night, Kara.”

“Good night, Alex.”

Silence descended once again. Lena continued to hold very still, unsure of whether Kara was still standing above her or not. She wondered what Kara thought of protecting her. She knew her as well as the rest of them did and yet she seemed to be the driving force behind them taking the job of protecting her against everyone else’s wishes. Except for Winn, but apparently she could win him over simply by being nerdy. Lena filed that information away before returning to Kara. The blonde was obviously her biggest supporter within the group which would prove valuable in the future. Lena just couldn’t figure out why.

Before she could try and parse out an answer and inevitably give herself another headache, the quiet was broken once again.

“I trust you, Ms. Luthor,” Kara said, her voice just loud enough for her to hear.

Lena nearly dropped her glass in surprise. She couldn’t tell if Kara was just speaking her mind out loud or actually speaking to her. It had to be the former. There was no way Kara knew she was there.

After another moment, a low chuckle reached Lena’s ears.

“Good night, Ms. Luthor.” The words were soon followed by the sound of retreating footsteps, leaving Lena alone in the silence with more questions than before.


	4. 7 August 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey my people. I'm sorry for the super late update. Between work, finals, and Christmas I've barely had time to write so I also apologize if this seems rushed or stilted or something. But now we're on winter break and I've got a week off from work, so hopefully I'll have the next chapter up a lot faster this time. Until then, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Lena nervously eyed the clock, absentmindedly chewing on her thumb. She wondered when Kara and the rest would come down for their meeting. They had been mostly cryptic on what the meetings would entail except that they would be every Monday at nine. Which was in three minutes. Lena continued to chew on her thumb. She hated being in the dark.

Lena looked down at the signed contract sitting in front of her. If she gave it to them at the meeting, she felt she’d need to get used to that feeling. They seemed to like keeping her in the dark. She guessed everyone needed a hobby.

She fought against the itch to call Cat. She knew she’d say the same exact thing she had told her when she had first met them three days prior: ‘Just give them a chance’. Lena knew she’d have to get around to doing that some point soon. They wouldn’t get very far, against her mother and in life since they’d all be dead at the hand of her mother, if she didn’t trust them. They wouldn’t get very far if they didn’t trust her either.

Before Lena could start to plan out how she was going to get them to trust her, a soft knock sounded on her office door.

Lena quickly sat up from her slouched position and straightened the already straight contract.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Winn’s head popped out from behind it, a giant smile plastered onto his face.

“Ms. Luthor,” he greeted enthusiastically as he walked into the office. Jess quietly closed the door behind him. “You ready?”

“Am I only meeting with you today?” Lena asked, making sure to raise her eyebrow in question instead of allowing her brow to furrow in confusion.

Winn’s expression on the other hand crumpled in confusion for a second before clearing back up into a smile. Honestly. He smiled almost as much as Kara did. “Ah. No,” he replied. “I’m just here to collect you. We’ll be having the meeting up on the ship.”

“I was under the impression we would be meeting in my office,” Lena said. She refused to leave her chair until they had cleared this up.

“We felt the ship would be,” Winn waved to the windows behind her, “more secure.”

Lena sighed and gathered up the contract. “You really value your security,” Lena commented, getting up out of her chair.

“We really value your security, Ms. Luthor,” Winn said seriously.

Lena paused halfway around her desk, snapping her head up to look at Winn in surprise. Winn just looked back at her with a fierce determination.

For all her thoughts of trust a few minutes before, Lena couldn’t handle what Winn was offering. She hastily replaced her expression of surprise to one of professional amusement.

“I should hope so,” she remarked. “It is why I’m paying you.”

She mentally cursed hard enough to make a sailor blush as Winn’s face fell into something akin to sad disappointment. She had faced down boardrooms of angry business men, gun toting mercenaries, and manipulatively murderous mothers. She could handle a bit of trust thrown her way. Especially if it would prove beneficial.

“Anyway,” Winn said, clearing his throat and trying and failing to hide his disappointment behind a smile. It didn’t reach his eyes. “You ready?”

“Take me to your leader, Mr. Schott,” Lena said, trying to bring back a bit of the levity from before. She was rewarded by a more genuine uptick of Winn’s lips before he turned and started out of her office. She quickly followed.

“Please hold my calls until I get back,” Lena requested as they passed Jess’s desk.

“Of course, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena nodded her thanks to Winn as he held the door to the stairwell open for her. She waited until he closed the door behind him so they could mount the stairs together. She was grateful that, even after only half a flight, she wasn’t the only one that was slightly winded. Less grateful when she remembered that Winn was supposed to protect her if anything happened. She obviously wasn’t the only one that needed to work out more.

As they started to near the door leading out onto the roof, Winn started to fidget slightly. Lena eyed him curiously, wondering what he wanted to say that was making him so nervous.

Right as they reached the last step, she got her answer.

“What color is it?” Winn rushed out breathlessly.

Lena smiled slightly, imagining her lightsaber in her mind’s eye. “Purple,” she answered. She kept her gaze on Winn as she walked out onto the roof. “It even says ‘bad motherfucker’ on the…” Lena trailed off as she turned to face the roof in front of her, “...hilt,” she breathed.

Covering at least three quarters of the roof in front of her was a giant ship. Or at least she assumed it was a ship considering Winn and Kara kept referring to it as such and there was literally no way anything else could be parked on her roof. It looked like no ship she had ever encountered. It looked more like someone had decided to park a thirty-first floor on top of her building. She really hoped it didn’t compromise her building’s integrity. And that there was some kind of engine or hidden wings or propellers that would eventually allow it to be removed from her roof. They had obviously got it up there though, so Lena figured something like that had to be true.

“Come on,” Winn urged excitedly.

When Lena didn’t move, Winn gently grabbed her bicep right above her elbow and started to steer her toward the ship, babbling a mile a minute. Lena didn’t take in a word he said as she continued to stare at the ship in awe and shock. It seemed to get impossibly larger as they got closer, until it filled Lena’s whole field of vision.

It was made of some form of metal Lena couldn’t identify and painted black. The whole thing was a juxtaposition of sharp angles and soft curves that Lena could make no sense of. Even if it had an engine or turbines Lena could easily identify, she wasn’t sure how the ship would get up off the ground. It would have been an engineering miracle.

“And this is the cargo hold.”

Winn’s voice came back into focus as they walked up an entry hatch and were enveloped by the monster of a ship.

The cargo hold was surprisingly small considering how large the rest of the ship was. It was sparsely furnished with only a sturdy looking table surrounded by nine chairs; four on each side and one at the head. Only five of the nine chairs were occupied. J’onn sat in the chair at the head of the table with Lucy on his left and Maggie on his right, all three of them absorbed in conversation. Alex and Vasquez sat next to Maggie, both focused on their tablets. A large bank of screens covered nearly the whole back wall and were flanked by two closed doors that presumably led deeper into the ship.

“So what do you think?” Winn asked eagerly. “Imagine watching Star Wars on that.”

“The original is so much better on the big screen,” Lena agreed. Lena turned away from her examination of the screens just in time to see Winn grimace slightly. Lena raised her eyebrow in surprise. “Or not?”

“No. You’re right,” Winn hurriedly assured. “It would be awesome. We just tend to avoid the original around here.”

Lena jumped at the chance to learn more about the people she had to learn to trust, trying not to make it obvious how desperate she was. “Why?”

Winn’s gaze flicked toward one of the doors leading deeper into the ship before looking back at her. Lena raised her eyebrow encouragingly.

“Kara lost all her family and friends in an explosion when she was younger,” Winn explained in a rush. He let out a deep breath, but Lena couldn’t tell if it was because he had just done something he shouldn’t have or because he felt hurt for his best friend. “She watched the whole thing happen,” Winn continued. “Alderaan just hits a little too close to home, you know?”

A faded memory of forehead kisses and the sound of Irish lullabies sung in Gaelic flashed through Lena’s mind as she looked toward the door Winn had glanced at. A wave of sympathetic sadness washed through her. “Yeah,” she agreed, her voice soft.

As she turned back to look at Winn, Lena’s gaze suddenly fell on Alex where she was still sitting next to Vasquez. Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“What about Alex?”

“What?” Winn asked, his confusion at her question mirroring her own. She fully turned to look at him again.

“You said Kara lost all of her family and friends,” Lena explained, “but what about Alex?”

“Oh,” Winn said, understanding lighting his eyes. “Kara’s adopted.”

She immediately felt her heart go out to Kara in solidarity. “Where was she from originally?” Lena asked curiously. She felt this strange urge to get to know as much about Kara as possible.

Winn opened his mouth to reply, but was immediately cut off as someone else spoke.

“Pennsylvania. She’s Amish.”

“Amish?” Lena asked, startled by the answer and Alex’s sudden appearance at her elbow to glare daggers at Winn. Winn gulped nervously.

“Yes Amish,” Alex confirmed sharply. She raised her eyebrow challengingly and Lena felt herself automatically raising hers in reply. So much for all the trust and truthfulness she was trying to cultivate.

Before Lena could call her out on her probably bullshit answer, one of the doors leading deeper into the ship opened to reveal Kara on the other side with two mugs of coffee.

“James isn’t coming,” Kara announced, sliding into the chair next to Alex’s empty one. “So let’s get started.”

Without another word, Alex made her way over to her seat. Winn beckoned for Lena to follow and led her to the end of the table, motioning toward the chair right across from Kara for her and slipping into the one right next to it, leaving a chair open between him and Lucy, presumably for James.

Across the table, Alex reached for the second mug of coffee in front of Kara. Kara slapped her hand away.

“You’ve already had three,” Kara admonished in response to her sister’s pout. A grin overtook her features as she turned toward Lena and pushed the mug across the table. “Besides, this one’s for Lena. Black, two sugars. Just how you like it.”

“Thank you,” Lena said gratefully as she took the mug and took a generous sip.

As she set the mug back down, Lena noticed a circular emblem decorating the side of the mug. A bird with outstretched wings flew regally under a line with two stars flanking what had to be an acronym. It looked like the emblem for a black ops division of the government.

“What’s the DEO?” Lena asked.

“Delightfully Edible Operatives.”

Definitely not black ops.

“Lucy!” Kara exclaimed, scandalized. Maggie leaned over the table and high fived Lucy, laughter falling from both their lips. Alex rolled her eyes, her laughter mixing with the other two.

“Vasquez’s answer is actually the one we’ve agreed on,” Winn said, leaning over to whisper to Lena as the rest of the table fell into teasing discussion and playful bickering. “Lucy just likes teasing.”

Lena’s brow furrowed, glancing over at where Vasquez was silently watching everyone else around the table, her gaze occasionally flicking down to her tablet. Lena wracked her brain for what Vasquez had said, but came up empty. In fact, Lena couldn’t remember hearing Vasquez speak once since she had met her.

“What did Vasquez say?” Lena asked quietly, glancing back at Winn.

At her words, Winn’s eyes widened as if he had suddenly remembered something important he had forgotten to do. He hastily grabbed something from his belt that was quickly revealed to be a tablet identical to the one sitting in front of him and started to fiddle with it as he began to speak.

“Vasquez is deaf,” Winn stated. Lena turned to look at Vasquez in surprise. It certainly explained why she hadn’t heard her speak before and Lena felt that she wouldn’t be surprised if she looked up the sign of ‘sorry’ and found it to be identical to the hand motion Winn had made a few days previously.

“Not all of us know sign language though,” Winn continued. “So when we’re in meetings like this, microphones record everything we’re saying and appear real time on our tablets where Vasquez can see and type out responses that we can see.”

Lena looked around the table, noticing the strategically placed tablets in front of everybody’s seats. They all seemed to expertly keep an eye on their tablets and everyone around the table as they talked to each other, never once talking over each other, even in their ribbing. She turned her attention back to Winn as he placed the tablet in front of her, pointing to what looked like a run of the mill text conversation, everybody separated into separate blocks of text.

“The highlighted portions are Vasquez,” Winn explained. He scrolled up as text kept appearing until he reached the earliest highlighted text. “Here’s Vasquez’s answer.”

Lena quickly read Vasquez’s answer.

“Deadly Efficient Operatives.”

“It definitely inspires greater confidence than Lucy’s response,” Lena commented, looking up from the tablet.

Lena blinked in surprise as she took in the entirety of the table looking at her warily in silence. Vasquez just smiled slightly as she typed something out on her tablet. The second she was done, she sat back in her chair with a satisfied smile.

Everybody simultaneously looked at their tablets as a new message appeared on their screens. The atmosphere in the room tense as they all read what Vasquez had wrote.

“Lucy’s certainly inspires confidence as well if you’re into that sort of thing.”

The silence held for a split second more before half the table erupted into laughter. Maggie and Lucy offered up high fives and Kara let out a scandalized, “Vasquez!” Alex looked torn between laughing and being scandalized as well.

As the table fell back into teasing and bickering, Lena kept her gaze trained on Vasquez, unsure of how to proceed.

As if feeling eyes on her, Vasquez looked across the table and locked eyes with Lena. Before she could feel guilty for being caught staring. Vasquez smiled and pointed at her tablet. Lena looked down at her own, a message between just her and Vasquez popping up on her screen.

“You don’t have to worry about me,” Vasquez said. “I’m just as capable, and as Alex is pestering me to add, in some cases more capable, than the rest of the team.”

Lena glanced up to see Alex watching her, an eyebrow cocked in a challenge. She hastily looked back down at her tablet and typed out, “I wasn’t worried.”

She looked up just in time to see Vasquez levelling a smile at her as she shifted her tablet over for Alex to see. Alex looked a bit mollified as she took in Lena’s answer before looking up at her and nodding slightly. Lena offered a small smile in return.

As if waiting for the exchange to end, J’onn suddenly spoke up.

“As much as I’m sure our employer is enjoying this conversation,” J’onn said, the clear scolding tone in his voice leaving Kara, Winn, Lucy, and Maggie looking varying degrees of sheepish, “maybe we can get on with our meeting.”

“Of course,” Kara quickly agreed. The atmosphere in the room immediately turned serious. She nodded to Winn, spinning in her chair until she was facing the large bank of monitors on the wall. Lena and the others followed suit.

Kara pointed to the contract sitting in front of Lena. “I see you’ve brought the signed contract, so we’ll jump right in. Today’s meeting will be short,” Kara promised the room at large, “since we haven’t been able to amass a lot of data yet. Winn.”

Lena heard Winn tap on his tablet for a second before a large map of National City and the surrounding area appeared on the monitors.

“This is a map of National City and the surrounding area,” Winn explained. He tapped once more and a few dots appeared on the map. “And these are all known owned properties of Lillian Luthor. At least those that are public record. She also has many properties scattered all over the country.” The map zoomed out until it showed the entirety of the United States, little dots scattered all over, the largest mass hovering over Metropolis on the east coast.

“But we’ll be sticking to the immediate area in and around National City for now,” Kara interjected, spinning her chair to face the table. She directed her words mostly to Lena as she continued. “And these do only include legally obtained properties under the name ‘Lillian Luthor’. Alex is going to reach out to an old buddy in the FBI and see if there are any known aliases that Lillian liked to use so we can broaden our search. Would there be any record of her buying properties through the company?”

Lena started shaking her head before Kara could even finish her question. “Mother had very little to do with the company even when Lex was running it. If she purchased any properties illegally, she didn’t use the company to cover it up. She preferred separate methods. But I can have Jess look into it all the same.”

Kara nodded in acknowledgment. “That would be much appreciated. In the meantime, we’ll look into the properties we already know about, Alex will reach out to her contact in the FBI, and we’ll start looking into any organizations she had extensive contact with before she was arrested to see if any of those would be capable and willing to take her in. We’ll also keep an ear to the ground just in case she surfaces. Sound good to everyone?”

Kara looked around the table for confirmation, receiving a nod from everyone, before landing on Lena, looking at her expectantly.

“Sounds good,” Lena agreed with a nod.

“Great!” Kara exclaimed enthusiastically. Lena blinked in surprise as Kara clapped her hands together and leapt out of her chair. “Let’s get started. Winn. Please escort Ms. Luthor back to her office.”

Kara leaned across the table and picked up the signed contract. “Thank you for giving us a chance, Ms. Luthor,” Kara whispered low enough for the microphones not to pick up. “We won’t let you down.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Lena warned, wincing at the sharp bite to her tone. So much for cultivating trust. But instead of looking hurt or disappointed at her words, Kara’s expression morphed into one of determination. Confusion and curiosity rippled through Lena as she also took in the small glimmer of sadness in Kara’s eyes.

“I don’t,” Kara vowed.

She stood up and tucked the contract under her arm.

With that, the rest of the DEO minus Winn got up and rapidly left the room. Lena couldn’t tell if they wanted to get away from her that badly or if they were just that eager to find her mother. She decided on the latter but then couldn’t decide whether to be worried or happy about it. She decided to stick with happy. It was better for her health. Both physically and emotionally.

Winn cleared her throat, pulling Lena’s attention toward him. He smiled. “Whenever you’re ready, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena immediately walked toward the open hatch of the cargo hold, Winn falling into step next to her. “I’m sure I can find my way back to my office by myself, Mr. Schott,” Lena teased as they stepped out onto the tarmac.

She glanced sideways to see Winn’s eyes widen with panic, his mouth opening and closing frantically. She almost felt bad, but before she could put Winn’s mind at ease, he began to speak.

“I’m sure you can,” Winn assured frantically, the words leaving him in a rush. “I’m along for protection more than anything.”

Lena waited until she was past him and in the stairwell before raising her eyebrow skeptically. If it was protection they were worried about, why had they sent, instead of the fully capable ex-military and law enforcement, the one guy who got just as winded as her when taking the stairs? No offence to Winn. She actually liked him.

“Are meetings usually like that?” Lena asked as they made their way down the stairs.

“No,” Winn said. “There’s less task assigning and more information sharing and brainstorming as the assignment goes on. We don’t have a lot of information in the beginning, but that starts to change as all of us go down different lines of investigation and get different information, so the meetings become about us making sure we're all on the same page and pushing forward the good investigations and discarding the bad ones.”

“That sounds extremely efficient.”

Winn shrugged slightly. “We’ve had a lot of practice and quite a few pep talks from Ms. Grant over the years.”

Lena chuckled. Cat’s pep talks could definitely straighten a person out. Or make them realize how not straight they actually were depending on the person.

By some unspoken agreement, they stopped in the hallway right before walking out into the foyer where Jess was seated.

“Trust me, Ms. Luthor. We know what we’re doing.”

“And will you trust me?” Lena challenged.

A pained and guilty look immediately flashed across Winn’s face, but just as quickly smoothed into determined hopefulness.

“Kara trusts you,” Winn stated. “With that seal of approval, the others will come to trust you in time.”

But how long would that take? They didn’t have time. Lena needed to get them to trust her faster.

“Thank you, Mr. Schott,” Lena said, the wheels in her head starting to turn with ideas.

A large smile broke out over Winn’s features. “Of course, Ms. Luthor. Have a good day. Call us if you need anything.”

He nodded his head slightly in farewell before turning on his heel and walking back the way they had come. Lena waited until he had disappeared into the stairwell before striding into the foyer, power walking toward her office. Jess stood up the second she saw her and fell into step behind her.

“What does my schedule look like today, Jess?”

“You have a meeting with R&D at two, but that’s it.”

“Good. Reschedule it and hold my calls.”

“Of course, Ms. Luthor.”

“Thank you, Jess.”

Before Jess could even close the door behind her, Lena strode to the concealed door behind her bookshelf that led to her bedroom. She had some brainstorming to do.

\-----

“What the hell happened in here?!”

Lena whirled around to see Jess standing in her doorway leading to her office, staring at her bedroom in horror.

“Language,” Lena automatically admonished. “We’re in the workplace.”

Jess scoffed, setting the tray of food she had been holding onto the nearest flat surface so she could cross her arms over her chest and shoot Lena an unimpressed look. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard you cuss in the workplace, I’d be as rich as you. And besides, I’m in your bedroom now and not in the workplace so I’m going to repeat myself and hopefully get an answer this time: What the hell happened in here?”

Lena opened her mouth to protest that nothing had happened, but quickly closed it as Jess raised her eyebrow challengingly, daring her to protest.

Lena turned back around and fully took in the mess she had made in the past four hours with fresh eyes, suddenly realizing just how big of a mess it was. Papers with various amounts of scribbles and scratches were strewn about everywhere, covering just about every surface in the room. Post it notes of all different colors were stuck everywhere else, taking advantage of the surfaces regular paper couldn’t. Pens, pencils, and highlighters were scattered about the room where Lena had abandoned them mid thought. She winced. It looked like Office Depot had exploded in her bedroom.

“I was coming up with a plan,” Lena answered.

“A plan for what?” Jess asked, stepping up to stand next to her and being more fully immersed in Lena’s madness.

Lena hesitated. “For getting my new security team to trust me,” Lena admitted quietly. She kept her eyes turned on the mess in front of her and didn’t look at Jess. She didn’t feel like seeing the look of pity in her eyes.

After a few moments of silence, Jess let out a loud sigh. “You don’t have to do all this to get them to trust you,” Jess said, waving her hand around at the room.

Lena turned to look at her. “Then what do I do?” she asked desperately.

“The same thing you did to get me to trust you,” Jess stated simply with a shrug as if Lena knew what that was. She turned and started to walk out of the room. Lena whirled around to watch her leave.

“But how did I do that?”

Jess stopped in the doorway. Lena watched her with bated breath, feeling a little lost. She didn’t have to wait long before Jess looked back at her over her shoulder, smiling at her a little sadly.

“Just be yourself, Lena,” Jess advised.

Tears pricked at the corners of Lena’s eyes. Over the years, Lena had started to view Jess almost as a friend. Maybe Jess had started to view her as a friend as well.

Before either of them could get too emotional, Jess motioned to the tray of food she had brought in. “But with more eating,” Jess ordered gruffly.

“Of course. Thank you, Jess,” Lena said, trying to hide the thickness in her own voice.

With a sharp nod, Jess left. Lena watched the door for a few more seconds before turning back to her room. She sighed deeply as she took in the mess. Clean up was going to be a pain in her ass.


	5. 16 August 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter for the new year. Happy 2018 everybody.

A week and a half later, and Lena hadn’t had a chance to implement Jess’s plan. Not that she had had much of a chance. Not a lot had happened with the DEO in that time.

The DEO had searched multiple possible locations in search of Lillian and had come up empty each time. In fact, for every location they searched, two more seemed to take its place. It seemed apt that it felt almost like battling a hydra. Lena knew better than everyone that Lillian Luthor spat fire and poison and could only be defeated by the drastic measures of beheading and fire.

Lena really hoped it didn’t actually come to that. Or at least didn’t come to that in her office. As poetic as it might be, it would also be extremely messy and blood was an absolute terror to clean out of carpet.

Lena rubbed her leg and turned her thoughts to the DEO themselves and Jess’s unimplemented plan. It was hard to foster trust when she didn't even see them. Other than Winn and Kara, who stopped by every once in a while, the latter for updates and the former for nerd talks, and James, who had once again excused himself from the weekly meeting, Lena had only seen all of them once in the whole week and a half. Jess’s plan was useless if she didn’t have people to be herself around. Maybe she could come up with another plan.

Before Lena could start coming up with another plan that would inevitably snowball into an explosion of paper all over her bedroom for the second time in as many weeks, her focus was wrenched back into the R&D meeting she was supposed to be paying attention to as the door to the conference room burst open.

She and the fifteen other scientists and engineers jumped and turned to look at the door. Lena’s heart rate spiked as she took in Kara standing in the doorway, looking slightly disheveled as if she had run from somewhere.

In the silence, Lena could clearly hear as Jess hissed “Kara!” through gritted teeth from behind her. Her secretary reached out to grab Kara’s arm, presumably to drag her out, but Kara dodged and stepped deeper into the conference room.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Luthor,” Jess said, her eyes wide. “She’s really fast.”

Lena studied the pair in front of her. Jess looked flushed and harried from chasing after someone who clearly wasn’t listening, but Kara had lost her disheveled look and looked cool and collected in a pair of dark tan chinos with a black and white checked button up tucked into it. She looked so gay.

Lena mentally shook herself out of that train of thought and instead tried to see if Kara looked as if there was an emergency. She was looking so intently, she was sure she was the only one that caught Kara’s minute shake of her head. Lena breathed a sigh of relief before almost immediately panicking again. Just because there wasn’t an emergency didn’t mean nothing was wrong.

“It’s okay, Jess,” Lena said. “Ms. Danvers can stay and observe.”

Jess hesitated only a second before bowing out, closing the door behind her. Kara either didn’t see or ignored the brunette’s death glare and bounded over to a chair behind Lena with an excited air. Sixteen heads followed her movements as she moved across the room.

“Thank you, Ms. Luthor,” Kara said, sitting down in the chair. “Don’t mind me. Continue your meeting.”

Lena lingered on Kara for a few more moments before turning to the scientists and engineers at the table. “Please,” Lena prompted. “Continue.”

Everybody seemed to hesitate for a second until Lena cocked her eyebrow in expectation, sending one of the engineers, George, rocketing to his feet. She really wished her board members were that quick to respond when she asked a question. It would make board meetings so much more bearable.

“We were about to start on the,” He paused for a second, excitement and frustration materializing on her face in equal measure, “teleport.”

Lena immediately sat forward in her seat, nearly all thoughts and worry brought on by Kara’s arrival disappearing in an instant. She and her team had been working on the teleport non stop for months. They had finally started building right before Lillian had broken out of prison. Lena hadn’t been able to be as hands on as she would have liked with the project since and was eager for any information.

Unfortunately, the worry started to creep back in as Lena felt Kara lean in as well. The blonde’s physical presence and the worry it brought pressed against the back of Lena’s mind like an oppressive blanket. Lena grit her teeth and shoved the thought away. There would be time to worry about her life and her mother later. Right now she had to work on the teleport.

“What have you got?” Lena asked. She fought yo keep a business edge to her tone and not let her inner nerd shine through. She may be a total nerd that totally looked forward to creating something right out of a Star Trek episode and that would be the next big technological advancement since Barry Allen and STAR Labs’ particle accelerator, but she was a Luthor first and a project like this was to be treated like any other business dealing. Even if she was completely geeking out on the inside.

“Construction has been running smoothly,” George informed her. “Most of the structural frame has been built, but we’ve run into a slight problem.”

“Which is?” Lena asked, cocking her eyebrow.

“We underestimated how much power would be needed to run even one of these, let alone two to get it to actually work,” George explained. “What little we have already built barely functions with how much power we have allocated for the project. With our new calculation, we’re going to have to drain all of L-Corp’s power just to get even a quarter of this machine to work.”

Lena frowned. That was a serious problem. L-Corp had access to, in all outward appearances, unlimitless amounts of power, but that’s all that access was: an appearance. It wasn’t an appearance that they did have access to more power than was usual compared to other multibillion dollar tech companies, but if they were reaching that limit, there was not way they would get the teleport up and running without draining power from the whole West Coast. Or at least get it running without it looking like when they teleported the alien pig in ‘Galaxy Quest’.

Lena started to think of ways to fix the problem, her thoughts seeming to go mile a minute as she came up with and then discarded idea after idea. Everybody in the room looked at her expectantly. She frowned as she continued to come up empty. Her thoughts immediately turned to what Lex would do. Her frown deepened at the thought. He would just throw more power at it which was the opposite of helpful at the moment.

Before the silence and expectant gazes could become too much or too awkward, Lena felt a soft tap on her elbow.

Lena nearly jumped out of her skin, barely hanging onto her composure and keeping the action as discreet as the person performing it had intended. She looked down at her elbow where the tap had originated from and immediately took in the piece of paper Kara was trying to hand her.

Lena’s heart leapt into her throat. Had Lena done something? Had Kara gotten word that Lillian had made a move? Had they found her? Had she killed someone? Was she outside about to kill her?

Lena barely kept her hand from shaking as she surreptitiously took the paper from Kara, the worry she had pressed down at news of he teleport now coursing through her veins tenfold. At least she would receive news of her impending death while doing something she loved. Or rather, more impending death. She knew her impending death was coming the second she had read that newspaper headline, but she had been sitting at her desk doing nothing fun when she had read that and was she really going to have an internal debate about such details right before her death?

Lena looked down and unfolded the paper. She blinked.

Instead of warnings of her impending death, the paper was covered in half finished calculations. Lena couldn’t keep her brow from furrowing in confusion as she took them in. She recognized the first part of the calculations as calculations she and her scientists had worked on together to figure out the power needed for the teleporter. The last part was also recognizable as their calculations, but with a few key changes. Her eyes widened as she realized the changes implications.

A pen was unceremoniously shoved into her hand from behind and she quickly leaned forward to finish the calculations. What they needed hadn’t been more power, but more balance. Take that Lillian’s golden boy.

Lena discreetly glanced over at Kara as she finished up. At least now Lena could die knowing she had solved that problem.

Awe and excitement at the solution and worry and fear at Kara’s presence battled inside of Lena as she slid the paper with the now completed calculations over to George.

“Try this,” Lena instructed. George took the paper and looked it over, letting out an exclamation as he took it in. She continued as he excitedly shoved it at the scientist next to him. “I’ll be down tomorrow morning to see how things are progressing. Meeting adjourned.”

All the scientists and engineers immediately got up and started to leave, chattering excitedly as they passed the paper back and forth.

Lena didn’t even wait for them all to leave before she was up and crossing the room, her fear and worry mounting with each step. She could hear Kara hurrying after her. But to protect her from a threat on the other side of the door or to tell her deadful news, Lena wasn’t sure. Either way, it couldn’t be good. What other reason would Kara have for barging into the middle of her R&D meeting?

“Thanks for letting me stay,” Kara said brightly as they stepped out of the conference room and into the hallway. “I haven’t been able to stretch my head like that in a while.”

“Is anything wrong, Ms. Danvers?” Lena demanded. She turned to look at Kara as soon as they were fully out into the hallway, the blonde stumbling to a halt at her abrupt stop.

Kara’s brow furrowed in confusion at the question, causing Lena’s worry to psike. It would be her luck to hire a bodyguard who was a secret genius apparently, but had a terrible memory.

After a second, Kara’s expression cleared into a bright smile. She bounced on the tip of her toes as she answered.

“Nope. Nothing’s wrong. I just got bored and the team got annoyed with me so they sent me elsewhere.”

Lena stared at the blonde in shock for a moment. She had...made her panic...because she was bored?!

“Don’t do that!” Lena hissed, smacking Kara on the shoulder. She winced slightly at the action. Kara was extremely hard. Kara’s eyes widened in surprise at the outburst and she stopped her bouncing with a small thud on the carpet. “I thought something had happened.”

“I wouldn’t have just sat in the corner if something had happened,” Kara stated as if that should’ve been obvious.

“I don’t know that,” Lena retorted.

Kara’s brow furrowed, a crinkle forming between her eyebrows. Lena waited with an expectant raised eyebrow as Kara thought.

“If your life is in immediate danger, I’ll head straight for you to protect you and break up the meeting. If we have new information on your mother I need to discuss, I will make this motion,” She quickly made a hand motion that Lena recognized as the sign for ‘mother’ from her quick perusal of American Sign Language, “and I’ll leave the continuation or cessation of the meeting up to you. If I’m just coming to observe, I’ll come in quietly and sit in the corner. Does that sound good?”

Lena immediately came up with at least five hypotheticals where those wouldn’t work and knew she’d come up with more if she allowed herself to continue, so for simplicity’s sake, she halted her worrying in its tracks and nodded.

“Sounds good,” she agreed.

The smile returned to Kara’s face full force. “Great!”

Lena smiled tightly in return, still trying to recover from the high state of fear and worry she had been in for the past few minutes, and turned on her heel to start walking back to her office.

He brow furrowed as Kara fell into step behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Kara practically bouncing down the hallway. Lena stopped right before reaching the foyer in front of her office and half turned toward the way too chipper blonde, causing said blonde to nearly collide with her yet again.

“What are you doing?” Lena demanded.

Kara’s brow furrowed. “Following you,” she stated as if that should be obvious once again.

“Why?”

Kara stared at her in confusion for a second and Lena cocked an eyebrow. After a moment, the confusion on Kara’s face cleared to be replaced by a slight red tint of embarrassment. She ducked her head and straightened her glasses nervously.

“Well,” Kara said, “I’m still bored and it’s lunch time. Would you like to get lunch with me?”

Lena blinked. Lunch? She had work to do. She didn’t have time for mundane things such as lunch. For some reason though, she didn’t want to tell Kara that.

“That’s okay,” Lena assured. “I usually just take lunch in my office.”

Kara started bouncing on her toes again, a wide grin overcoming her features. “That’s fine,” Kara insisted. “I can go run and grab what you like and we can have lunch in your office.”

Lena immediately opened her mouth to protest, she had a lot of work to do, but before she could even get a word out, someone beat her to the punch.

“She likes the salad with shrimp from that italian place on 6th. I’ll call ahead.”

Lena whirled around to glare daggers at Jess. For someone who had been furious at Kara not even a half hour previous, Jess looked much too smug to be in cohorts with her now.

“Awesome!” Kara exclaimed. She bound past Lena, giving Jess a fist bump on the way to the elevators. To Lena’s surprise, Jess returned the gesture, if only with an eye roll before. “I’ll be back in fifteen,” Kara called out right before the elevator doors closed on her.

Lena stared at the elevator doors in disbelief. An hour’s worth of work now had to be squeezed into fifteen minutes. She turned to glare at Jess. Her secretary had the gall to look back at her with an innocent expression.

“Trust, Ms. Luthor,” Jess said before Lena could say anything. “We’re trying to cultivate trust.”

Lena snapped her mouth closed. That was true. And the opportunity had perfectly presented itself. She would be idiotic to turn down the chance to build some trust even if the person she was having lunch with supposedly already trusted her. It was just good business.

Lena sighed. “Fine.” She looked at Jess meaningfully. “Just this once.”

“Of course, Ms. Luthor,” Jess agreed.

Lena squinted. The smile on Jess’s face spoke of other plans, but Lena wasn’t going to worry about that now. She had a lunch to prepare for.

\-----

“One shrimp salad for you. Two double cheeseburgers with fries for me,” Kara announced loudly as she barged into Lena’s office.

Lena jumped and nearly scattered the blueprints she was looking at all over her office. She swept up the pen she had dropped before it could roll off her esk and glared at Kara. The blonde had the decency to grimace in apology as she set the bags full of food down on the coffee table, carefully avoiding the chess set already occupying the surface.

“Sorry,” Kara said. “Jess said I could come right in.” She gestured toward the bags she had just set down. “I have food.”

“I’ve been informed,” Lena said wryly. She twirled her pen for a second and glanced back down at the papers on her desk. There was so much to do. “I do have to apologize, Ms. Danvers. I have a lot of work to do and I really can’t afford to be distracted. If you could just leave me my salad, I’ll eat while I work.”

A look of alarm appeared on Kara’s face at Lena’s words and she immediately started to shake her head. “No can do, Ms. Luthor,” Kara said. “I’m under strict orders not to take no for an answer.”

Lena flicked her gaze in the direction of her office doors, hoping Jess would be able to feel it across the distance. She held the glare for a few moments before sighing in defeat. It was easier not to argue with Jess sometimes and it looked like the same tactic would have to be employed when dealing with Kara. Besides, Lena had been the one that wanted to get to know the DEO members better so they would all trust each other. Lena conceded defeat with a sigh.

“I thought I hired you to protect me, Ms. Danvers,” Lena said as she stood up and started to make her way over to Kara and the couch.

“I’m protecting you from you abhorrent lunch habits,” Kara said, holding out Lena’s salad with a smile. “But if you want to feel productive, maybe we can play a bit of chess?”

Lena hesitated in the act of taking her salad from Kara. She tried to hide her grimace as she glanced down at the bag of Kara’s double cheeseburgers with fries. The chess set was a Luthor family heirloom given to her by Lionel the year before he died in honor of her World Chess Championship win. The last thing she wanted was to get grease all over it.

Kara noticed her hesitation and glanced at her food as well. “I’ve got loads of napkins,” Kara promised, looking back at Lena with a serious expression. “And I’ll use one hand to eat and one hand to play.”

Lena studied her for a second. Sincerity rolled off of her in waves and Lena could always service it to be cleaned as soon as they were done.

“Okay,” Lena agreed. She took her food off Kara’s hands and went to sit down on the couch.

An eager and excited grin split Kara’s features. “Excellent. White or black?”

“Black,” Lena replied, spinning the board to face her. Lex had always insisted she play black after the first time she had beat him, citing something about how she had only won with the advantage of making the first move. Lena hadn’t minded. She had won nearly every subsequent game against him and she liked the opportunity playing black gave her; being able to analyze an opponent by their first move before countering with her own. But Lena supposed that was the difference between her and Lex: He struck first, asked question later, whereas she liked to sit back and see the best way to bring her opponent to their knees if need be.

Kara dragged a chair over from in front of her desk as Lena reset the board. Lena eyed Kara warily as the blonde eagerly pulled one of her double cheeseburgers out and took a bit. It didn’t seem as greasy as Lena had feared, but it was still worrying, but true to her wordKara reached for the pieces with the hand not holding her burger.

“Knight to f3.”

Lena nodded slightly. It wasn’t an uncommon move, but it also wasn’t the most traditional either and seemed to come out of left field. It summed up her relationship with Kara since she had met her quite nicely. Lena moved her pawn to d4.

They continued to play in silence for a few more minutes until the quiet was broken by Lena moving her queen to checkmate Kara’s king.

“Checkmate.”

Kara studied the board for a moment before looking up at Lena with a smile. “So it is. Another game?”

Lena motioned toward her desk. “I still have work to do.”

“Which can wait, or be delegated, or I’ll do it later,” Kara said with a shake of her head. Lena’s eyes widened slightly in alarm at the last suggestion. “Besides, you haven’t even touched your salad and I believe we were play chess while eating lunch, not while ignoring it.”

Lena looked over at her salad still sitting it its bag. She was really going to have to look over their contract again because she didn’t remember there being anything about bugging her about eating but she was starting to doubt herself. Maybe Jess had snuck it in when she wasn’t looking.

“Alright,” Lena agreed, pulling her salad out of the bag and grabbing the proffered fork out of Kara’s hand. “One more game, but then I go back to work whether I’m done eating or not.”

“Deal.” Kara began to reset the board one handed as she pulled out a box of fries and began to munch on them.

Lena eyed Kara curiously as she absentmindedly began to eat her salad. She wasn’t sure what to make of her. Everything she uncovered about the blonde just brought up more questions instead of answers. Lena wondered if she’d ever figure Kara out. Then she shook her head slightly. She’d only known Kara for a week and a half. There was still time to figure out Kara Danvers. Unless her mother got to her first, in which case nobody would be getting to know either one of them any time soon.

“Knight to f3.”

Kara’s words pulled Lena out of her depressing thoughts and back to the game in front of her. She decided to try something different and moved her knight to f6 before taking a bite of her salad.

After a few moments of silence, Lena realized that, while she could learn a lot about Kara from a chess game, she could learn a lot more if they actually talked.

“So,” Lena started, moving her pawn to b5, “you seemed to know what you were doing in the conference room earlier.”

“I should hope so,” Kara replied, looking up to flash Lena a grin before returning her attention to the board and move her pawn to b5 to capture Lena’s, “or Midvale University will be calling for their PhD in electrical engineering back.”

Lena choked on the forkful of salad she had just eaten. Kara looked up from her own food in alarm. Lena waved away her concern as she grabbed a glass of water and took a large gulp.

“That wasn’t in your file.”

Kara shrugged slightly. “If you’re smart, they put you in engineering or something. I wanted to be on the front lines. Besides, you wanted a bodyguard, not a scientist.” Kara’s lips lifted up in a smirk.

“I think I’ve changed my mind.”

Kara laughed. “Maybe after I’m done saving your life.”

“I’m counting down the days.”

Kara laughed again and Lena found herself hoping it would never stop. She quickly leaned forward and moved her bishop to capture Kara’s pawn at b5 to cover up the unsettling heat she could feel creeping up her neck.

“Why did you get into science?” Lena asked, hoping to change the subject.

Kara seemed to halt halfway through reaching for her piece. Before Lena could start to look up at her in concern, Kara continued forward, grabbing her own bishop and moving it to g2.

Kara continued to keep her gaze trained on the chessboard, so Lena quickly followed suit. Kara began to speak as Lena moved her pawn to d5.

“My father as a scientist,” Kara said, the barest hint of something strangling the undertones of her words. Lena’s brow furrowed slightly, unable to put her finger on what exactly Kara was feeling. “When he died, I wanted to be closer to him, so I pursued science.”

Lena looked up at Kara in understanding, a feeling of something akin to pride unfurling in her chest. It was one thing to hear about Kara’s parents from a third party. It was another to hear it from Kara herself and understand the trust that was behind the words.

Kara king side castled.

Lena turned her attention back to the board and moved her knight to d7. “Did he teach you chess as well?”

To Lena’s relief, a bit of the tension in the room eased as Kara chuckled. “No,” she responded, moving her own knight to c3. “My adoptive father, Jeremiah, had that honor. When I first came to live with them, a lot of things were,” Kara paused slightly, “overwhelming and it was hard to focus. Jeremiah and I found that chess had a way of making things easier to handle.” Kara looked up at Lena with a smile. “Plus, I think he just wanted someone to play with since Alex never showed the inclination to learn.”

“Her loss,” Lena replied, a small smile of her own tugging at her lips. Kara’s smile grew in response.

“What about you?” Kara asked as they turned their attention back to the chessboard. “Who taught you to play?”

Lena barely kept herself from pausing halfway through moving her bishop to a6. She opened her mouth to lie; to tell the story of a teacher during her boarding school years that had pushed her to excel. Instead, Lena found herself of Jess telling her to be herself and the look of understanding Kara had given her the night they had met. Lena decided to take a chance. She couldn’t live in fear after all.  
“Lex,” Lena answered. She kept her gaze trained on the chessboard as she continued. She didn’t want to look up and see the judgement in Kara’s eyes. “The first time I met him, he offered to teach me. He was the one that made me feel the most welcome.”

Silence descended when she finished speaking. Lena kept her gaze trained on the chessboard, waiting for Kara to move.

After a few moments of waiting, Lena finally looked up, her expression a mask of indifference as she braced herself for the usual mistrust and fear she received when she mentioned Lex.

Instead, she found nothing but understanding in Kara’s gaze. Her mask slipped slightly in surprise. Kara offered a small smile of sad understanding before turning to the chessboard.

“He was a very good teacher,” Kara commented as she moved her rook to e1. She looked up with a teasing glint in her eye. “You’re giving me a run for my money.”

Lena couldn’t help but scoff, half in surprise and half in offense. A sudden feeling of immense gratitude washed over her for whoever had sent her Kara Danvers.

“I’d like to see you try and beat me,” Lena said. A fierce sense of competitiveness that she hadn’t felt since playing against Lex welled up inside her. She moved her bishop to d6. “I will have you know that I am a World Chess Champion three years running.”

Kara laughed. “You’re on.” She moved her bishop to b2.

Lena raised her eyebrow at the challenge and king side castled.

A comfortable silence fell over them as they began to play in earnest. Lena felt more and more impressed as they went. It had already been apparent that Kara was good, but as they continued, it became more and more obvious that Kara was more than just good. Lena wondered why Kara had never tried for the title. She would have given everybody a run for their money.

Her impressed feelings gave way to frustration as the minutes went by. Kara thwarted every bid at a checkmate Lena made even if the final move itself wouldn’t happen for another few moves. Her chances of winning steadily slipped away as the moves progressed.

Right before Kara could move her queen into position for the winning move, her phone went off, allowing Lena a few more seconds to figure out if there was any way she could salvage the game. But Jeremiah had taught her too well.

As soon as Lena was sure that there was no way out of the impending checkmate, she looked up, worry spiking in her gut at the small frown on Kara’s face as she took in the caller ID.

“I’m sorry,” Kara said, looking up and lifting her phone slightly. “I’ve got to take this.”

“Of course,” Lena said. “Don’t worry about this,” Lena said, waving Kara away as she started to clean up their food. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you, Ms. Luthor,” Kara said gratefully. She hastily leaned forward and moved her queen to d4 to capture Lena’s pawn and checkmate her king. She flashed a grin in Lena’s direction. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

With that, Kara whirled out of her seat and hurried out the door, answering her phone on the way. “Hello, Etta. How are you?”

Lena watched her leave, continuing to stare at the door for a few moments after it closed behind her. After a while, she looked back down at the chessboard and sighed. For as much as she had griped about not getting to do her work, reluctance now gripped her like a vice.

She sighed again and got up from the couch, cleaning up the food containers. The blueprints weren’t going to check themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, full disclosure, I know nothing about science. But I do know about chess and I took Lena and Kara's first game from a 2003 match between Jon Ludvig Hammer and Magnus Carlsen. Their second game was a 2005 match between Magnus Carlsen and Geir Sun Tallaksen Ostmoe. Just in case any of y'all are nerds like me and like to look up random chess games on the internet.


	6. 20 August 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this one is pretty dialogue heavy because I needed one more chapter to kind of set everything up, but next chapter starts with the action, so hang in there if dialogue isn't your thing.

Lena looked out over her balcony and tried to decide what to do with her day. The sound of metal hitting the glass of her mug was the only thing she could hear that high up as early morning traffic rushed by L-Corp. Not that there was much of it. Most people didn’t come to the business district on a Sunday. Then again, most people didn’t have the weight of their family name and company or live in their company headquarters.

Lena turned away from the view at that depressing thought and decided what she was going to do with her day. There was paperwork to fill out and meetings to prepare for. If she got lucky, maybe she’d be able to go down to her private labs and get to tinker. Her lips upticked at the thought.

Her smile turned a bit bigger as she took a sip of her coffee. No matter what, she could always count on caffeine to be there for her. She grimaced at the thought as she walked into her office and over to her desk. Apparently the morning was going to be full of depressing thoughts. In that moment, Lena decided to prepare for her upcoming meetings. They always required the most attention to complete and the distraction would be much appreciated.

Lena sat down at her desk. She took another sip of her coffee as she used her other hand to pull out her laptop. As soon as she had it out and open in front of her, she set down her coffee to use both hands to begin unlocking her laptop. Unfortunately, the price of security was speed, but Lena was sure not even Lex could hack her laptop at that point.

As she waited for her laptop to finish verifying her sign in, she turned on her television, clicking through the channels until she reached the news. Her screen immediately flashed with a picture of a man in his early forties with dirty blonde hair wearing an army uniform. His expression held the seriousness of a soldier, but something twinkling in his eyes betrayed a lighter side to him that might have loved a good joke and getting into trouble. ‘Funeral of Colonel Steve Trevor’ ran across the ticker on the bottom of the screen.

Lena continued to watch as the news cast switched over to live footage of the funeral that had started an hour previous on the east coast in Arlington National Cemetery. The news had been talking about the death of the war hero nonstop since it had been announced two days previously. The news casters continued to talk about it as the screen split into two; one to continue showing the funeral and the other to show the news casters as they made comments.

Even though she had heard it many times of the last few days, Lena couldn’t help but listen as the news casters once again gave the run down of what the public was allowed to know of Steve Trevor’s death. He had been killed on a mission in Afghanistan, taken down in his plane while trying to protect someone else in his unit.

Lena hoped she would go out like that when it was her time; doing something you loved and protecting people. She knew most people would be surprised that a Luthor had such a wish, but she could think of nothing better.

She was suddenly pulled out of her reverie as they began the twenty-one gun salute. The crack of the rifles sounded through her speakers with such clarity that it almost felt like it was happening in her office. Lena flinched and scrambled for the remote. Unfortunately, another volley of shots sounded before she could mute the television, causing her to involuntarily flinch once more.

She hastily turned away from her television so she didn’t have to see the rifles discharge either. She set the remote down and turned back to her laptop, thankfully taking in the homescreen. She rubbed her leg as she began to click through the files she needed for the meeting preparation. The distraction the preparation would provide now looked a lot better than it had a few minutes previous. She pulled up her notes and lost herself in the planning.

\-----

A polite knock sounded on her office door, pulling Lena from her meeting preparation haze.

“Come in,” she called, pulling the papers that had become scattered across her desk into some semblance of order.

The door opened and Winn’s head appeared around the frame, quickly followed by the rest of his body.

“We come bearing food,” he said proudly, as if he was presenting her a multimillion dollar idea for an invention. Kara appeared behind him, closing the door with her hip since her hands were full with a plate heaped with sandwiches. Winn continued to speak as they made their way toward her desk. “We had some food leftover from lunch and Kara had a feeling you may not have eaten yet. So we came down to offer you our spoils.” He leaned over the desk slightly, still far enough away that his whispering was completely ineffectual as Kara set the plate of food on the desk. “You may want to eat fast. It’s almost afternoon tea and Kara had to skip elevenses.”

Kara mock glared at Winn. At least, Lena thought it was a mock glare. “At least I’m not the one short enough to be a Hobbit.”

“We’re the same height,” Winn exclaimed indignantly.

Lena felt a small smile tug at her lips. Kara saw it and winked at her as she fell into one of the chairs across the desk from her. Something in Lena’s chest warmed at the sight. She quickly pulled the plate of food toward her to distract herself from it.

The plate was covered in a staggering array of sandwiches. There was peanut butter and jelly in what seemed like three different varieties. They were accompanied by an egg salad, a tuna, a cucumber and ham, a BLT, a BLT that seemed to be missing the B and included avocado instead, and, most disconcertingly to Lena, a peanut butter and banana. She carefully removed the last one and grabbed the avocado BLT from beneath it.

“I told you she wouldn’t go for the peanut butter and banana,” Winn told Kara as she sat down, his low whisper not low enough in the otherwise silent office.

“Well,” Kara said happily, “it is almost afternoon tea.”

With that, she leaned forward and grabbed the peanut butter and banana sandwich off the plate, holding it up in a ‘cheers’ gesture before taking a bite. Lena grimaced around the bite of her own sandwich. 

Winn’s gaze lingered on Kara as she took another bite before he turned to look at her. Lena detected a hint of worry in his eyes that didn’t fully go away as he spoke.

“So what have you been up to?” Winn asked, the cheer in his voice just a tad too strained. Now that Lena had seen it, she couldn’t unsee the worry that rolled off of him in waves. Kara, on the other hand, seemed to not have a care in the world except to eat her sandwich. “Have you been able to read that book I lent you yet?”

Lena’s thoughts turned to the Star Wars book sitting untouched on her nightstand. It had appeared there after Winn had practically shoved it into her hands during a passionate monologue about the Star Wars Extended Universe and the horrendous crime Disney had committed in discarding it when they had bought LucasFilm.

“Unfortunately not, Mr. Schott,” Lena said. She motioned to the papers strewn across her desk. “Work waits for no one.”

Winn groaned. “But it’s Sunday.”

Lena arched her brow. “Are you not also working on Sunday?”

“That’s different,” Winn said. “Besides, Kara had the day off.”

Winn’s words pulled Kara’s attention away from where she had been intently staring at Lena’s television. Lena was taken aback by the raw sadness in Kara’s eyes. Lena blinked and it was gone. The only evidence it had ever been there was the increased worry on Winn’s face. Lena debated whether to ask what was wrong before deciding that if Kara wasn’t going to draw attention to it, she wouldn’t either.

“And what do you get up to on your days off, Ms. Danvers?” Lena asked, trying for some normalcy or levity.

“I relax,” Kara answered. “Watch TV, eat,” She held up the last bite of her sandwich and popped it in her mouth, proceeding to speak with her mouth full, “spar.”

“Sparring sounds like the opposite of relaxing,” Lena attempted to tease.

“Depends on who you ask,” Kara replied with a shrug. She pointed toward the plate still full of sandwiches on Lena’s desk. “May I?”

Lena pushed it toward her. “Go ahead,” she said, her mind elsewhere. She recalled Lex dragging her to self defense classes after the first time she had been kidnapped at the age of nine. He had made a special trip to Ireland when he had heard and gotten special permission for her to attend classes in the town near her boarding school on the weekends. He would always practice with her when she was home. She had stopped when she started going to college, citing time constraints, but by then, Lex had taken over the company and barely even noticed. She hadn’t done anything like it in years, but she could vaguely remember enjoying it once upon a time. Maybe it was time to pick it up again, if only because her mother was trying to kill her.

She was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts as Winn cleared his throat slightly and speak up.

“Can we turn off the TV, please?”

Lena looked up to find Winn looking at her, a worried expression on his face. Kara was intently eating her sandwich.

“Of course,” Lena agreed, grabbing the remote and turning toward the TV.

The TV was still turned onto the news channel from that morning, recapping the funeral of Colonel Steve Trevor. Even with the volume turned off, Lena could tell the news anchors were giving an account of Trevor’s time in the military, focusing on the triumphs that had given him the moniker of war hero.

Right before Lena could turn it off, the report switched over to footage of the funeral from that morning as a female Marine in dress blues presented the folded burial flag to Colonel Etta Candy, Steve Trevor’s closest friend. Lena hastily turned it off. Even in profile, Lena recognized the Marine and realized that Kara had definitely not been relaxing on her day off.

An awkward silence fell over the room. Lena frantically cast around for something to say. All that came to mind was ‘I’m sorry for your loss’, but Lena had sworn never to say that to someone. She had hated it when people said it at Lionel’s funeral. It had felt hollow and had only made her feel worse. While Lena wasn’t sure what Kara’s relationship to Colonel Trevor was, but she was sure ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ would offer as much comfort to Kara now as it had been to Lena then. She also discarded all of the questions that were populating her thoughts. The last thing Kara would probably want would be to be interrogated.

Finally, Lena opened her mouth to say something, anything to break the silence that was becoming more and more stifling by the second. She was cut off before she could say anything by Kara, who was fiddling with her half eaten sandwich.

“His SO was my SO,” Kara said, a small smile tugging at her lips. Winn rolled his eyes as if Kara had just told a joke he had heard so many times that it had gotten old, but he would good naturedly endure it since she still thought it was funny. As if sensing Lena’s confusion, Kara looked up at her, her smile growing slightly even if it was still tinged with sadness. “His significant other was my superior officer in the Marines,” she explained. “Diana Prince.”

The name pulled at Lena’s memories. She remembered hearing news of her death as well. Much like Steve Trevor, she had been killed in combat and her death had been talked about for weeks after.

“I was in her unit for years and we became close. She helped me when I was going through a tough time,” Kara continued, looking down at her sandwich. Her brow was furrowed in an expression that clearly said it pained her to talk about it. Lena wanted to inject and tell Kara that she didn’t have to tell her if she didn’t want to, but didn’t want to interrupt if it was actually something Kara needed. Winn seemed to be in the same boat. His hand hovered uncertainly between their chairs as if he couldn’t decide whether to reach out or not.

“Between get togethers when all three of us were on leave and missions when we weren't, I got to know Steve quite well too.” Her brow furrowed even further and her voice tok on an even more strained quality. “After Diana was killed in action right before my eyes and I left the military, Steve and I kept in touch. He was a great soldier, and an even better man.”

Lena blanched. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to watch a friend get killed right in front of her. It was no wonder that Kara had left the military soon after.

“They sound like great friends.”

Kara looked up at her, a bittersweet smile on her face. Lena smiled back at her in what she hoped was a comforting and understanding way. “They really were.”

Once again, an awkward silence fell over the trio. Lena tried to come up with something to say that would keep the conversation out of the painful territory it had suddenly found itself in. Winn seemed to be at as much of a loss as she was as he looked at Kara worriedly.

“So, Mr. Schott,” Lena settled on, “what do you do on your days off?”

There was a slight pause. Before Lena could cringe too much at her horrible choice of conversation topic, Kara let out an appreciative laugh. It was completely contagious and Lena quickly found Winn and herself joining in on Kara’s laughter.

“Oh, you know.” Winn flexed slightly, his muscles barely lifting the material of his button up. “Sparring. Working out. Getting ripped.”

“He works out all right,” Kara teased. “If you count lifting the remote to change the channel as working out.”

Winn mock gasped. “I resent that. I have a strict workout regimen.”

“If you count binge watching an entire series of Doctor Who as a strict regimen, sure.”

“Don’t even pretend you didn’t participate in that Doctor Who binge before going home and starting a Star Trek binge as well.”

“Last time I invite you to a Star Trek binge.”

“Et tu, Brute?” Lena interjected. Kara and Winn turned away from their teasing to look at her. Kara’s eyes sparkled with mirth while Winn just looked utterly betrayed. “I thought you said you were a Star Wars fan.”

“Don’t let Winn fool you, Ms. Luthor,” Kara teased as Winn spluttered. She nudged Winn’s shoulder with her fist causing him to splutter even more. “He speaks Klingon like a native.”

Lena gasped in mock hurt. “And Huttese,” Winn defended. “I love both franchises equally. And so does J.J. Abrams so don’t judge me.”

“I guess you can still see my lightsaber,” Lena conceded, offering up a small smile.

“And your teleport?” Kara asked, leaning forward eagerly. Her eyes glinted with excitement.

“You have a teleport?!” Winn shrieked. Lena raised her eyebrow at Kara who grimace smiled under the attention.

“He signed the same confidentiality agreement I did?” Kara said with a small shrug.

Lena guessed she was right. And Winn looked more eager to just learn that there was something like a teleport being built somewhere in the world instead of eager to steal the idea and build it for himself. He could prove to be a valuable pair of eyes as well.

“I have a scheduled inspection tomorrow afternoon after our meeting,” Lena said. “I’m sure the project head wouldn’t mind if you two wanted to tag along.”

Two equally excited shouts sounded through the office. A loud smack quickly followed as the pair high fived. Winn winced and shook out his hand. Lena couldn’t help the small smile that pulled at her lips.

“Thank you, Ms. Luthor,” Kara enthused.

“Of course, Ms. Danvers. Mr. Schott.”

“I think we’re now on a first name basis, don’t you?” Kara grinned.

“I second that,” Winn said.

“In that case,” Lena said, “you can call me Lena.”

“Lena it is,” Kara said, her smile growing even wider. Her name falling from Kara’s lips made a weird feeling shudder through Lena. She was shaken from trying to figure out what the weird feeling was as Kara continued. “We should probably get going,” she said, getting up from her chair. “Winn needs to get back to narrowing down our search. It was nice talking to you.”

Winn echoed the sentiment as he got up from his own chair. Lena returned their smiles with one of her own albeit smaller ones and watched as they started to make their way out the door.

After a moment, she sighed and turned back to the work on her desk. She had a feeling it was going to be a lot harder to do it now that she had taken a break, but she couldn’t find it in herself to worry about it all that much.

“Wait,” she called out as her eyes landed on the plate of sandwiches still sitting on her desk.

Winn and Kara both stopped right before reaching the door and turned back to look at her. She picked up the plate of sandwiches and stood up to take it to them. She grabbed the cucumber and ham before holding it out.

“Sandwiches?” Lena offered. “It is almost afternoon tea.”

Kara let out a laugh before striding over to meet Lena halfway. “Thanks. We’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“See you tomorrow, Lena,” Winn echoed from where he was still standing at the door.

Kara shot her one last smile before turning back toward the door. Winn gave a small wave as Kara made his way past him. He quickly followed her out the door.

Lena watched them go. If that was relaxing, she decided, maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lena's coffee mug in this chapter looks like [this](https://www.amazon.com/Catamount-Laboratory-Beaker-Mug/dp/B004GE8NSM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1515461239&sr=8-2&keywords=beaker+coffee+mug) because Lena is a huge nerd. Also, the Technical University of Munich is a real university, but all the stuff I added with Kara or for the sake of her story is completely fake.


	7. 22 August 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over 100 kudos! Every single one absolutely makes my day. Thanks to all of you. :)
> 
> Also, quick note before y'all get to the action. As of the posting of this chapter, so the 11th or 12th of February depending on where you are, I've gone back and changed a few things about chapter 5 and 6. It doesn't really influence anything in this chapter so if you want to read this first and then go back and look at the changes, then you should be good. It doesn't really influence anything in the next few chapters actually, but I could not move forward with it the way it was. Every time I sat down to write, I'd end up just obsessing and couldn't move forward, so, now that it's fixed, hopefully I'll be able to move forward faster. Or at least as fast as a uni student who has about seven to ten papers due this semester can move.

Lena rubbed her temples and fought down the urge yet again to call Jess, birthday be damned. It wasn’t that Alana was bad at her job, the complete opposite in fact, but Jess had a way of doing things that made her day just that much easier. Jess spoiled her too much. Spoiling Jess by forcing her to take the day off for her birthday was the least Lena could do. Or the most since Jess had almost refused to take the day off.

Lena paused in the middle of agonizing over paperwork. She wondered if she could get Henry to order one of the fruit baskets Jess liked to be sent over. She had said no gifts, but it wasn’t a birthday gift per se if she was just sending it as a thank you gift for Jess being such a wonderful secretary. The fact that the gift happened to show up on her birthday was just a coincidence, right?

Halfway through reaching for her intercom to ask after Henry, a frantic, but still somehow controlled, flurry of knocks sounded through her office. Lena froze and looked at the door. Alana knew not to let anyone through without checking with her first which meant the person was in a major hurry to get to her.

As if to prove her point, another flurry of knocks sounded out. Lena tried to remind her racing heart that assassins didn’t knock as she shifted so she was sitting up straight and facing the door, her hand lightly resting over the panic button Winn had installed. If, for some weird reason, it was a polite assassin on the other side of the door, she would face them with as much dignity as she could.

“Come in,” Lena called, raising her voice to be heard over the third flurry of knocks.

Her office door burst open mid knock. Lena relaxed slightly as Lucy stepped into her office. She could see Alana over Lucy’s shoulder, hurrying toward the office with wide eyes, before Lucy shut the door behind her. Lena winced at the slight force Lucy used to close the door and any relief she had felt at Lucy’s presence flew out the window as she took in Lucy’s posture: rigid and at attention.

“I need you to come with me, Miss Luthor,” Lucy said, her calm demeanor in clear contrast with her earlier pounding on the door.

Lena could still hear the urgency beneath the calm and leapt out of her chair. She tried to calm her racing heart as she hastily made her way over to Lucy. The last thing she needed was for her heart to pound its way out of her chest and kill her before her mother got the chance.

“What is it?” Lena demanded.

“We found your mother.”

With that, they were running out the door.

“Alana. Hold my calls,” Lena ordered as they flashed past her on the way toward the stairwell. Any other time, Lena would have found her look of shock funny, but now, she barely spared her a passing glance.

A sudden thought occurred to her right as she reached the stairwell. She screeched to a halt and spun around, Lucy dashing past her.

Lena pinned Henry under her gaze. Henry looked back at her in slightly fearful surprise. “Henry. Please order a fruit basket to be sent to Jess’s place. You know the ones she likes.” She turned halfway back toward the stairwell and Lucy standing in the doorway before looking back at him over her shoulder. “And whatever you do, don’t write happy birthday on the card.”

At Henry’s frantic nod, Lena and Lucy were running again. Much to Lena’s chagrin, she quickly became breathless and she could tell Lucy was holding herself back as they bounded up the stairs.

“How did you find my mother?” Lena gasped out between breaths.

“We found out a former associate of mine worked with her back in the day, so I reached out,” Lucy replied, no sign of breathlessness in her voice. Lena pushed aside her jealousy in the pursuit of knowledge and her mother. She really needed to stop comparing herself to ex-military.

She had to admit that Lucy was a superb liar, but she still detected the slight hesitation on the word ‘associate’, almost as if that didn’t fully cover it, but Lucy was loathe to even give the person that close of a relationship label.

“We found a warehouse they frequented when they worked together,” Lucy continued. “There’s clear signs of it being used in the past few days since your mother’s break out. Winn in monitoring it now to make sure they don’t escape before we get there.”

They burst out onto the roof as she finished her explanation. They raced across the tarmac in silence. Lucy didn’t even slow down as they ran up the ramp and into the ship. Lucy continued down one of the corridors leading deeper into the ship as Lena slowed to a stop next to J’onn and Winn where they were standing and sitting respectively, carefully studying the bank of screens on the far wall.

Five of the screens were lit up with what looked like split views of helmet and body cameras attached to what could only be the DEO team prepping to leave. While she watched, a sixth lit up with the same set up as Lucy suited up. The rest of the screens showed different camera angles of a warehouse sitting out on the edge of town where it butted up against the desert. At least there wouldn’t be any civilian casualties if anything went south, both literally and figuratively.

“Hey, Lena,” Winn greeted, not looking up from what he was doing on his tablet.

“Hello, Winn. What’s going on?”

“Kara is finishing preparing the jet for departure,” J’onn replied. Lena couldn’t find herself in any way surprised that they somehow managed to house a jet that seated six people somewhere in the behemoth that was their ship.

“Team’s away,” Winn announced barely a second later. Two screens lit up. One displayed a trajectory map, the plane already hurtling at high speeds toward its destination. The other displayed the footage of a simple dash cam mounted on the windshield of the jet.

“ETA three minutes,” Kara’s voice sounded out of the invisible speakers.

“There seem to be three entrances,” J’onn observed, leaning over Winn’s chair to get a closer look at the schematics he had pulled up on his tablet. “Kara and Vaquez. Come in from the roof. Alex and Maggie. Go in the front. Lucy and James. Cover the rear. Understood?”

A chorus of affirmation rippled through the speakers before both the jet and the cargo hold fell silent. Lena’s heart pounded in her ears so loudly, she was surprised no one else could hear it. The possibility that she was finally going to be free of her mother pounded in her head with every beat of her heart. It seemed too good to be true. Her mother didn’t just get caught. She had plans after plans after plans. And all of those plans ended with Lena being blamed both by the mass public and herself.

“Be careful,” Lena found herself saying. Even though she didn’t know the DEO very well, she found herself hoping none of them got hurt.

“Don’t worry, Miss Luthor,” Alex responded. Lena started slightly, surprised that the microphones in the room were good enough to pick up what she had said. “We know what we’re doing.”

Her words did nothing to reassure Lena as Kara landed the jet on a warehouse near their target. Memories of the last team she had worked with when facing her mother flashed through her mind. Bile rose in her throat at the thought and she quickly refocused on the screens in front of her.

The pairs worked like well oiled machines as they split off to do their jobs. Alex and Maggie went to stand sentinel at the front door as Lucy and James went around the building and Kara and Vasquez scaled the wall. Not a single sound came over the speakers except their quiet breathing and the muffled clink and rustle of their gear. Lena found herself holding her breath as if afraid that her breathing would give away their position.

“Vasquez would like to know where the guards are.” Kara’s whisper shot through the tense silence like a gunshot. Lena barely kept herself from jumping and instead started to rub her leg.

“Winn,” Alex said before Kara could even stop talking, her whisper rivaling Kara’s in its low register. “Status.”

“Nothing’s changed,” Winn said. Lena watched over his shoulder as he flipped through multiple windows on his tablet. One of the screens on the wall flickered as it followed Winn’s frantic flipping through displays. “Nobody has come or left. Heat signatures still read the same amount of people inside the warehouse.” Winn turned to look at J’onn over his shoulder. “What should we do?”

Lena and Winn watched J’onn expectantly. J’onn just ignored them and studied the screens in front of them. His gaze lingered on the six screens in the corner as if he could communicate with his team through them with only the power of his mind. After a moment that felt like an eternity, J’onn leaned closer to the screens.

“Breach.”

All six guns for hire sprung into action without even a moment’s hesitation. James and Alex nearly simultaneously kicked their respective doors in, letting Maggie and Lucy lead the way inside. The sound of glass shattering crackled over the comms as Kara and Vasquez broke through the skylights and rappelled down.

Not even a second later, everything devolved into chaos. Lena flinched as gunfire rang out from every speaker in the room. The erie absence of voices over the comms did nothing to settle her nerves. Smoke obscured the cameras until it was all the screens showed except the rapid muzzle flashes from the DEO’s rifles.

Lena’s heart jackhammered against her ribcage. Her breath caught in her throat and stayed there. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Winn frantically scrambling for something to help on his tablet. Nerves and fear rolled off him in waves, negating the calm J’onn was obviously trying to exude. Lena found her own nerves and fear mounting with each second of smoke and gunfire.

After a few more nerve wracking seconds, the smoke began to clear and the gunfire started to peter out. Within a few more seconds, the room was completely clear of smoke.

Lucy and James were only a few steps inside the warehouse, James a few steps in front of Lucy as if he had been trying to shield her from the gunfire. If the look on Lucy’s face when James turned to look at her was any indication, the gesture wasn’t much appreciated. Maggie and Alex were a little further inside, flanking the door. Kara and Vasquez stood back to back in the middle of the room where they had dropped down. Lena let out a breath of relief as she realized that, miraculously, none of them had been hit. Winn let out an equally as relieved sigh right next to her.

Their saving grace was soon revealed to be that there was no on else in the room. Lena’s brow furrowed in confusion as they all looked around in surprise to find a completely empty warehouse.

“Winn,” Lucy snapped. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Winn answered. He frantically flipped through displays until he reached one that showed the heat signatures from the warehouse. Where before it had showed about a dozen, now there was only half that. “They just disappeared.”

From Alex’s helmet cam, Lena watched as Kara tapped Vasquez on the elbow and pointed at the ground. Lena flicked her gaze over to Kara’s helmet cam to see her pointing to a series of grates in the floor.

“Winn,” Kara said. “Check below ground.”

Winn immediately shifted the display. “There are residual heat signatures heading out from the position of those grates. There seems to be a network of tunnels under the warehouse even further below than I’m equipped to monitor.”

Kara turned to Vasquez. “If we go now, we can still catch up to them.”

“No time,” Winn said, an alert popping up on his tablet. “Somebody must have heard the shots and called the police. They’ll be there in five minutes tops.”

The DEO fell into a controlled scramble to vacate the premises. Kara rappelled back up to the roof, shouting that she’d be back in three minutes. Vasquez waved to get Maggie’s attention and she and Alex jogged over to see a small patch of blood on the floor. Maggie immediately bent down, pulling a CSI kit out of her gear to take a sample. Lucy and James unclipped a pair of weird contraptions that sort of looked like a ghost traps from Ghostbusters from their belts and set them on the ground. At some signal, the traps opened and all of the bullets started to roll into the boxes as if summoned by magnets.

Almost as soon as they were done, four ropes suddenly fell from the ceiling. Lucy and James quickly snatched up the boxes and clipped them to their belts before running over to the ropes, Vasquez, Alex, and Maggie already halfway up to the ceiling. Within moments, all of them were back on the jet.

Lena blinked at the speed and efficiency with which they had cleared up. There was nothing but broken glass and a little bit of their attacker’s blood left behind to show that anything had happened. On some level, Lena had known that they knew what they were doing what with Cat singing such high praises, but she hadn’t expected that. No wonder she had never heard of them.

Kara punched it and shot the jet up into the sky, disappearing from sight, just as an army of police cars screeched onto the scene.

Lena felt both relief and worry warring inside of her. No one had been hurt, but her mother was in the wind yet again. They couldn’t even be sure she had been there in the first place, although the gunmen firing at the DEO was a large tip off that she probably had been.

Lena’s heart refused to slow down as she dwelled on the uncertainty of her mother’s whereabouts. Something about almost catching her made the whole thing feel more urgent than it had before.

Lena rubbed at her chest as she sat down, trying to get her heart to slow.

“Would you like some water, Miss Luthor?”

Lena looked up from staring at the floor to find J’onn standing next to her, looking at her with something that might have been kindness. Lena couldn’t fully tell through the rushing in her head.

Lena nodded and watched as J’onn turned and walked away. She looked back down at the ground as if it held all the answers to her questions. She started to rub at her temples, letting the clacking of Winn typing on a keyboard calm her down. There was nothing she could do until the rest of the DEO came back. Her mother was on the run in a direction that was the opposite of L-Corp and Lena so she was relatively safe for the moment. Her mother wasn’t stupid enough to try something right after almost being captured. Lena’s heart didn’t seem to get the memo.

\-----

“You set us up!”

Lena shot up out of her chair. Winn and J’onn looked up in surprise from what they were doing on the younger man’s tablet. All three of them stared at the corridor the shout had come from. Not even a second later, the door banged open, ricocheting off the wall next to it and almost taking James out as he stormed into the room.

“You set us up,” James growled again. Lena fought the urge to take a step back.

He got within an arm’s length before his way was suddenly blocked by an equally angry blonde woman. Kara planted her hands on his chest and shoved hard, sending him careening back into a chair and nearly falling over. The rest of the DEO was on them in a millisecond, helping James steady and keeping Kara from advancing on him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kara demanded, her words flying out like sharp knives.

Lena suddenly felt like sitting back down. She could handle James’s anger. She dealt with it every day from possible investors, her board, random strangers on the street. Kara’s anger, on the other hand, threw her for a loop. It almost seemed like Kara was angry for her instead of at her. While the whole reason Lena had hired her was to protect her from angry people, namely her mother, she hadn’t expected her to get angry for her and protect her from one of her own. Lena wasn’t sure what to do with the information.

“She set us up, Kara,” James reiterated as Winn helped him right himself. “We had Lillian within our grasp. We had solid intel and visual confirmation.” He jabbed a finger at Lena, prompting Kara to take a step toward him, dragging Alex and Vasquez with her as if they weren’t even touching her. “She tipped Lillian off.”

“She was with me the whole time,” Lucy interjected, obviously trying to diffuse the tension.

“You could have turned your back on her,” James countered angrily.

He seemed to realize his mistake as soon as he was done. Lucy’s eyebrow cocked, clearly unimpressed, and James’s expression fell into one of frantic apology. Winn took a step back from him as if afraid to get caught in the crossfire. Kara looked smug.

“So now you’re questioning my abilities?” Lucy demanded.

“No. That’s not it at all,” James defended. “But she’s a Luthor. There’s no telling what tricks she’s got up her sleeve.”

The anger was back on Kara’s face full force. “So just because of her last name, she’s evil, is that it?”

James looked at Kara for a split second as if sizing her up. Kara took a menacing step forward as he opened his mouth to speak. This time, Alex and Vasquez barely tried to restrain her.

“Don’t,” Alex warned, her tone as cold as ice.

James immediately snapped his mouth shut. Everybody looked at James as if daring him to say something else.

After another tense moment, J’onn stepped forward. “Why don’t we go take a breather?” No one moved to acknowledge that J’onn had even spoken. The ex-staff sergeant let it rest for a second before speaking again. “James?”

James glared at Kara and Lena for a split second longer before turning and storming off, exiting the cargo hold through the door he had entered only a few minutes previous. J’onn followed closely after. Lena couldn’t help but be reminded of when Clark had shown up in her office.

The tension remained for a few moments after the door closed behind them. As suddenly as it had appeared, the tension bled out of the room.

Kara turned to look at her, all traces of anger absent from her gaze to be replaced with nothing but concern. “Are you okay?”

Lena nodded dumbly, more focused on making sure her confusion and shock didn’t show instead of verbally replying. Why had Kara nearly gone to blows against one of her own? Over a Luthor? Lena couldn’t even begin to wrap her mind around it, so she shoved it to the side to deal with later.

Kara was still watching Lena with concern, so Lena focused herself to verbally reply.

“I’m okay,” Lena lied.

Kara continued to look at her with concern in her eyes. Lena started to find herself feeling overwhelmed.

She was saved from Kara’s undivided attention by Maggie as the ex-cop put a hand on Kara’s shoulder. Kara half turned to look at the shorter woman, bristling slightly with irritation at the interruption. Maggie cocked an eyebrow in what seemed to be both a warning and a reminder. Kara deflated under the look and turned back toward Lena, looking sheepishly apologetic.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Kara said. Lena just nodded, her confusion growing at the blonde’s gesture.

Kara studied her for a second more before taking a half step back and putting her hands on her hips. Lena recognized it as something Alex tended to do. She also recognized it as something that looked infinitely more comfortable on Alex.

“Right,” Kara said. “Winn. Can you look into any phones that received calls in that area between when we got the tip and when we reached the warehouse? James may not be right about Lena, but he isn’t wrong either. Someone tipped Lillian off.”

“I can certainly try,” Winn agreed. “But even on the edge of town, that’s a lot of phone calls and that’s assuming it was received on a phone that would ping an accessible cell tower and then only one cell tower.” Winn suddenly stopped as Kara shot him a look. He grinned sheepishly. “Pfft. I mean, easy as Eliza’s pecan pie, boss.”

“Thanks, Winn.” Winn clicked his tongue and shot her some finger guns before turning and leaving through one of the doors. Lena wondered if he had a more sophisticated set up somewhere else.

Kara turned to Lucy next, her expression morphing into one of clear apology, obviously reluctant to make her next request.

Lucy was nodding before Kara could even open her mouth to say anything. “I’ll tell you if I find anything.”

Kara nodded, watching Lucy worriedly as she turned and exited the same way as Winn. After a moment, movement out of the corner of her eye caught Lena’s attention. She, Kara, and Maggie turned to look at where Vasquez and Alex were standing. Lena made a mental note to learn sign language as Vasquez said something.

“She’ll be alright,” Alex translated, much to Lena’s relief. Maggie seemed to be in the same boat though as she nodded to Vasquez and Lena remembered Winn’s comment about not everybody in the DEO knowing sign language.

Kara nodded to Vasquez as well, her gaze flicking back toward the door before turning to Maggie. She jutted her chin toward the pouch Maggie had stuck the blood swabs in. “Can you send that to Barry for analysis? As well as some of the bullet casings Lucy and James picked up?”

“I’ll drive them to Allen myself.”

Lena frowned slightly at the familiarity of the two names. Excitement coursed through her as her mind put them together.

“Barry Allen?” Lena blurted out.

The remaining DEO members in the room paused in their discussion and turned to look at her. Only Lena’s excitement kept her from shying away from the sudden attention.

“As in STAR Labs Barry Allen?” Lena plowed on. “Physics revolutionary and the mastermind behind the particle accelerator?”

Maggie’s laughter was the only thing that covered up Kara’s sudden discontented rumblings. She was cut off before Lena could make sense of anything as Alex elbowed her in the ribs.

Lena’s attention was pulled away from the strange interaction as Maggie started talking.

“He’s a friend of Little Danvers,” Maggie explained. Her eyes twinkled with teasing mirth. “I can get his autograph for you if you’d like.”

Lena unsuccessfully fought down the blush creeping up her cheeks.

“That’s perfectly alright, Miss Sawyer,” Lena assured. None of them needed to know that she already had a signed copy of his doctoral dissertation that originally proposed the theory behind the particle accelerator down in her bedroom. “It’s better if he focuses on the evidence.”

“No need to worry about that,” Maggie said. “Allen’s the fastest CSI alive. And none of this Miss stuff. It makes me feel too civilian.”

Maggie waited until Lena answered in the affirmative before turning back to Kara, Alex, and Vasquez. Lena blinked in surprise as she realized Kara and Vasquez had left at some point during her and Maggie’s discussion. A weird mixture of relief and disappointment muddled her chest. She didn't think she could handle anymore of Kara’s concern, but she would have like to have been able to talk to Kara a little bit more. When the overwhelming concern wasn’t bothering her, Kara seemed to have a strange way of making her feel better.

“Kara went to call Barry and tell him you’re coming,” Alex said to Maggie. A small smile tugged at her lips. “And to fuel up your Ducati. She or J’onn will go pick you up in the jet the morning of the twenty-fifth.”

Maggie whooped. She clapped Alex on the shoulder as she made her way deeper into the ship and presumably toward her Ducati. Lena wondered, if that was the case, how they were going to get her Ducati down thirty-three floors. “Thanks Danvers,” Maggie called over her shoulder before disappearing through one of the doors, leaving Lena alone with Alex.

Lena fought the urge to fidget. Alex seemed to be following Kara’s lead where trusting her was concerned, but Lena wasn’t sure if that begrudging acceptance extended to when Kara wasn’t there. There was also something intimidating about the elder Danvers that, for some reason, had nothing to do with how comfortable she looked in her tactical gear and bristling with weapons and everything to do with her being Kara’s sister. Although the tactical gear and weapons didn’t help.

Alex turned back to Lena, her smile replaced by a professional mask. “Would you like me to walk you back to you office?” she asked politely.

As if flicking a switch, all the emotions and thoughts she had been keeping at bay since James’s outburst came rushing back. Lena tried not to choke on her words as she gave a reply, grateful for the years of practice she had at hiding her emotions.

“That’s alright, Miss Danvers. I can find my own way back.”

Alex seemed to hesitate for a split second before nodding her head. “Of course, Miss Luthor. Call if you need anything.”

She hesitated another second before she turned and left the cargo hold like the rest of the DEO, leaving Lena alone. Lena remained standing in the middle of the cargo hold for a second, fighting against the anxiety and terror clawing at her throat. Her mother was still out there plotting to kill her and her bodyguard team was splintering as some of them tried to beat her to the punch.

Lena hastily turned and left the ship as tears started to prick her eyes. Luthors didn’t cry and they certainly didn’t cry in public even if that public was empty. She expertly shoved the tears back as she made her way down the stairwell to her office. By the time she reached the bottom of the stairs, not even a hint of a tear escaped. She paused only a split second at the bottom of the stairs to take a steadying breath before walking out into the foyer, ready to face the rest of her day. She’d have time to unpack her feelings later or never.

\-----

She couldn’t sleep.

Lena waited for another thirty seconds before rolling over to take in the green numbers of her alarm clock flashing ‘2:30’ at her. Lena huffed in defeat and rolled back over to look at the ceiling listlessly. She had already been looking at it for the past hour and sleep had refused to come and claim her.

Lena gave herself another thirty seconds before pushing herself out of bed. If she wasn’t going to sleep, she might as well work.

She grabbed her robe and put it on over her silk pajamas as she made her way out of her bedroom and into her office, mentally making a list of things she could get done that wouldn’t alert Jess to what she was doing. Lena snorted. Jess always knew.

Lena was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts as movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She screeched to a halt halfway to her desk, her heart hammering against her sternum. She whirled in the direction of the movement, hoping against hope that it was only a bird that had flown by her window. Instead, Lena caught sight of a person standing in her balcony’s doorway, unidentifiable due to the light behind them. Lena’s heart rate spiked in a way that was certainly not healthy. She quickly tried to calculate exactly how far away both the panic button Winn installed and her concealed gun were from her and which she was more likely to beat the intruder too. She readied herself to lunge toward her desk.

“Wait, wait,” a vaguely recognizable voice said. Lena tensed but remained where she was. The intruder flicked on a flashlight and turned it to shine on their face. “It’s me, Miss Luthor,” Lucy said.

Lena let out a sigh of relief and untensed slightly, adrenaline still coursing through her veins. She eyed Lucy for a moment before making her way over to her drinks cart. She couldn’t sleep and now she needed something to settle her nerves. A nightcap or two sounded perfect.

“What are you doing on my balcony?” Lena asked as she poured herself two fingers of scotch. She turned around to face Lucy as the brunette was pocketing the flashlight. “Drink?”

Lucy shook her head. “I’m on duty. Your balcony is an easy entry point for an assassin. We’re honestly surprised no one has tried it yet.” Lena wondered how a balcony thirty-three stories up was ‘easy entry’, but she decided not to question it as Lucy continued, pointing up to the roof. “And unlike Kara, who loves to tempt fate by dangling her legs over the edge of the roof, I like the safety of a railing.”

Lena nodded, completely understanding. Even the railing wasn’t enough to assuage her fear of heights sometimes.

“May I join you?”

Lucy took a step back. “It’s your balcony.”

Lena nodded and made her way over to the balcony. She could feel Lucy’s eyes on her as she went to lean against the railing. She suddenly remembered she was wearing nothing but her pajamas which wasn’t saying much since summer was still in full swing and it was California. She hastily, in the least hasty way possible, took a sip of her scotch to cover up her discomfort. Lucy let out a chuckle that sounded like she could see right through it before coming to stand next to her.

They silently looked out at the mostly dark skyline. Lena sipped her scotch. Her mind wandered just like it had while she had been lying in bed. She began to reanalyze everything that had happened from the time Lucy had burst into her office to the time they had realized her mother had gotten away, trying to figure out what had happened. Kara, Alex, and Vasquez had gone back to the warehouse after the cops had left to check out the tunnels, but had found every one of them completely collapsed within a mile of the warehouse. Winn had had as much success. After isolating a call that seemed the most plausible as the one they were looking for, he had traced it all over the globe, only to lose it after about the twentieth bounce. Lucy’s associate had been just as helpful.

At the reminder of Lucy’s associate and the discomfort that had accompanied every mention of their title, Lena took another sip of scotch and cleared her throat. A small cock of her head was all Lena got to know Lucy was listening.

“Thank you for reaching out to your associate,” Lena said. “That didn’t seem to be easy.”

Lucy nodded. They continued to stare out at the skyline in silence.

After a few moments, Lucy took a deep breath. Lena stilled her already still body and focused everything she had on Lucy. She continued to look out at the skyline, not wanting to make the other woman uncomfortable.

“The associate was my father,” Lucy said as if the admission was painful. “I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was a complete bigot and racist what with how he treated my mother, but it still hurt, you know? You try your whole life to get a parent to love you and then realize that it was a lost cause.”

Lena’s mind immediately jumped to Lillian. She had spent years tailoring who she was to try and get Lillian’s approval and love. She still found herself trying sometimes. The moment she had realized it was never going to happen was both a huge relief and like a punch in the throat.

“I know how you feel,” Lena admitted quietly.

Lucy turned to look at her with barely concealed surprise. Lena took another sip of scotch. She really hoped there wouldn’t be any more uncomfortable reveals or anything. She was running out of scotch in her glass.

“I guess that is why we’re here, isn’t it?” Lucy asked rhetorically. She huffed a laugh that wasn’t without humor, but Lena knew it wasn’t meant to harm, and turned back to the skyline. “And here I only told you because I thought it would piss off my dad and James. Although Kara’s been bugging me about it as well. I’ve gotta admit, she might not be wrong.”

Another bit of scotch disappeared, this time to surprise, hope, and confusion. Lena cast around for something to do, unsure of how to proceed. She wasn’t used to making people trust her and yet it seemed that she may have managed to succeed with it three times in the space of three weeks. Lena felt out of her depth.

Before the silence could stretch too long, Lena grasped the one thing she could understand in the whole confusion of what Lucy had said and went with that.

“What happened between you and James?”

Thankfully, Lucy seemed to understand the topic change and just sighed heavily. “Just your typical on again/off again relationship,” Lucy answered. Every word seemed to drip under the weight of a conversation had a million times. “Right now we’re off again and I think it’s going to stick this time. I say that every time, but there’s only so many times one can watch a movie and expect a different ending.”

“What happened?”

“The same thing that always happened,” Lucy supplied with a shrug. “Clark Kent. He’s James’s best friend and James practically worships the ground Clark walks on no matter how much he denies it. No matter how many times he says it’ll be different, it always ends with me feeling like the third wheel in their relationship.”

“I always felt that way when Lex would hang out with him,” Lena said.

She glanced mournfully at her empty glass as Lucy looked at her with even more poorly disguised surprise than last time. She braced herself for impact and felt her heart sink as Lucy let out a loud peal of laughter. She silently berated herself for bringing up Lex. She had learned better than that over the years.

“What is it about that man that apparently just exudes gay sex appeal? All the conservatives are afraid we’ll turn their straight children gay, but Clark has had twice the success and, according to them, he’s working half as hard.”

It was Lena’s turn to look at her balcony mate in surprise. She had been ready for rejection and accusations not whatever that had been. She was unsure of how to respond to such an absurd comment, so she did the only thing she could do: She laughed.

Lucy positively beamed at the sound. Her watch beeped the hour.

“As much as I love making fun of Clark,” Lucy said, looking down at her watch, “it’s time for a shift change and you should probably get some sleep. Jess said something about an eight o’clock meeting.”

“Of course,” Lena said, miraculously not finding her mood dampened at the mention of early morning meetings. “Maybe we can make fun of Mr. Kent some more later?”

Any worry or hesitation at her suggestion was instantaneously swept away as Lucy grinned, nodding.

“I’d like that,” she said. “It’ll be nice to get some new dirt on him. All the stuff the rest of the DEO gave me ran out ages ago. In the meantime, goodnight, Miss Luthor.”

“Goodnight, Miss Lane,” Lena replied.

With a jaunty salute, Lucy hooked a cable Lena hadn’t noticed to her belt and suddenly rappelled up to the roof. Lena stared up at the place Lucy had disappeared with wide eyes. It seemed to everyone in the DEO loved surprising her.

Lena turned away from the balcony and made her way back inside, closing up behind her. The worry about her mother continued to linger in Lena’s mind, but she found that she’d find a much easier time falling asleep this time around.


	8. 25 August 2017

“And I’ve sent the notes for your meeting to your phone.”

“Thank you, Jess,” Lena said, turning on her phone to quickly peruse the notes. She already had them practically memorized and the meeting was more of a casual formality than a necessity, but a final look wouldn’t hurt. “Take the rest of the day off.” She immediately held up her hand to cut off the inevitable denial. She looked up from her notes just in time for Jess to quickly close her mouth and send her a fierce glare. “I’m taking the rest of the day after this meeting as well. Don’t worry.”

“I took the whole day off on Wednesday,” Jess protested. “And look what happened.”

“There’s no correlation between the two,” Lena pointed out. “And no one was hurt on Wednesday. I’ll be fine, Jess. My whole detail will be there.”

Jess narrowed her eyes. Lena raised an eyebrow under the scrutiny.

“Fine,” Jess conceded. “But if you get hurt, I’m not taking another day off until this whole thing blows over.”

“Fine by me,” Lena agreed, fully confident nothing would happen. Her mother would be stupid to try something in the middle of the city during rush hour. L-Corp had the advantage of being slightly isolated and was a turf she knew well. Plus, Lillian loved Italian. She wouldn’t blow up the best Italian restaurant in the city.

Jess eyed Lena for another moment before turning for the door. “I’ll see you Monday, Miss Luthor.”

Lena echoed the sentiment, sure she saw Jess place a call on her cell phone as she left. Lena hoped Kara was prepared to be threatened within an inch of her life that morning.

Before the door could even close behind Jess, she was replaced by Maggie. The bodyguard wore a loose fitting suit, probably to conceal the myriad of weapons she had decided to bring, and had her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. She looked like the stereotypical bodyguard off to do bodyguard things.

“Sawyer,” Lena greeted. “It’s good to see you back.”

“Good to be back,” Maggie said. “Pennsylvania’s nice, but nothing beats the California sun.”

Lena responded to Maggie’s grin with a small smile of her own, biting back the inquiry after the evidence that was on the tip of her tongue. Kara and Winn had both told her not to expect results until Monday. Barry might be the fastest CSI alive, but these things still took time and the DEO tried to leave as small a paper trail as possible so avoided the post and the internet. Instead, Lena glanced at her watch.

“Is it time to go already?” Lena asked, looking up at Maggie in confusion. It was about a half hour before her meeting, the restaurant was only ten minutes away, and she liked being at least five minutes early.

Maggie nodded. “Winn wants to outfit you with a bit of equipment before we go. It’ll take ten minutes tops.”

Lena nodded and started to clean up. Maggie silently waited by the door as Lena shut down her laptop and gathered up her papers. They continued in comfortable silence as they made their way out to the elevators. Lena input a password next to the call buttons, the elevator arriving within seconds as it skipped stopping at every floor to come directly to her. She didn’t like using the privilege very much, but she knew the DEO liked to interact as little as possible with the rest of her staff except Jess.

“So,” Maggie said as they stepped inside, pressing the button for the garage, “Allen seemed pretty flattered that Lena Luthor was a fan.”

Lena couldn’t help the red flush that seared her cheeks. “You didn’t have to tell him that,” she said as calmly as she could.

“Don’t worry,” Maggie assured, looking off into space as if recalling something horrible. “I regretted it after the third minute of him gushing about your green initiatives.”

Lena felt a rush of pride in her chest. She and her scientists had worked hard for months on the green initiatives.

Before she could comment and probably start gushing for more than three minutes herself, the elevator opened to reveal the underground garage. Maggie quickly led her over to a familiar black van, banging on the side of it as they reached it. Barely a second later, the sliding door was thrown open to be replaced by Winn’s excited, grinning face.

“Hey, Lena!” Winn enthused. “Maggie! Long time no see.”

“You saw me not even half an hour ago,” Maggie teased, swinging herself up into the van.

“It was a half hour too long.”

Maggie laughed and reached back to ruffle his hair. Winn immediately pouted and reached up to fix it causing Lena to chuckle. A smile split Winn’s features and he abandoned his hair to offer Lena a hand. Lena gratefully took it and climbed inside.

“Hello, Mr. J’onzz,” Lena greeted, catching sight of him in the very back of the van, monitoring the bank of screens along the wall. Winn quickly closed the door behind her and directed her to a seat before taking the one right next to her. He started to help set her up with the equipment as J’onn spoke.

“Hello, Miss Luthor,” J’onn said. She glanced away as Winn held up an L-Corp pin for her to see before starting to pin it to the lapel of her blazer and she turned her attention back to J’onn. “I’m happy to say that things are running smoothly,” J’onn continued. “The restaurant has been cleared and Jess has given the chef a stern talking to as per her request. The rest of the DEO is dispersed throughout the restaurant, ready to step in if anything goes awry.”

“Not that we’re expecting anything to go sideways,” Winn assured quickly, handing Lena a small earpiece. “Put this in and I’ll keep you patched in with the team until your meeting starts. If anything, God forbid, does happen, I’ll patch you back in and keep you apprised.”

With that, Winn turned and pressed a few keys. The earpiece crackled to life.

“Ew,” Kara’s voice came through loud and clear, “Alex. I didn’t need to know how sexy Vasquez looks in a suit.”

“My girlfriend is hot,” Alex replied simply. “How can I not let the whole world know how hot she it?”

Kara’s reply was lost as Winn turned to look at Lena. “How’s that? Not too loud?”

“No,” Lena assured. “It’s perfect.”

Winn beamed.

“Attention,” J’onn announced. Lena could hear him both right in front of her and through her earpiece. “Be on your best behaviour. Miss Luthor is on the comms.”

“Hi Lena,” Kara and Lucy greeted nearly simultaneously. Lena was sure that if J’onn were an expressive man, he would have rolled his eyes. Instead, J’onn handed her four headshots. Lena tuned out the DEO members already at the restaurant so she could talk to J’onn without distraction.

The first headshot showed a long haired woman in her mid twenties with reddish brown hair and green eyes. The second showed a woman with shoulder length blonde hair that looked like she’d be at home on a beach somewhere attacking the waves on a surfboard. The third showed a man in his early thirties that made his three day old stubble look classy and professional instead of messy and whose deep brown eyes were hidden by a pair of half rimmed glasses. The fourth showed a young blonde man with a well trimmed goatee and short hair on the sides and wavy hair on top that was swept to the side and kept out of his face with what was probably an ample, but still tasteful, amount of product.

“This is what your team looks like,” J’onn supplied.

Lena looked up at him in confusion then back down at the headshots, the request for clarification on the tip of her tongue. Before it could go any further, the question died in her throat as everything suddenly clicked. Beneath the make up and prosthetics, Lena could clearly make out the recognizable features of Alex, Lucy, Vasquez, and Kara. Her confusion melted away to awe. She glanced up at the screens to see if the headshots were actually them and not just random DMV photos, but, sure enough, the four body cameras in the corner proved that the headshots weren’t fake.

“Who did you get to do this?” Lena asked, running through the short list of makeup artists she knew. She was sure that if Cat had ever caught wind of a makeup artist that good, Lena would have been introduced to them at some point or another.

“Me,” Winn replied, his chest puffing up with pride. Lena didn’t even try to conceal how impressed and surprised she was she looked at him. “Well, credit where credit’s due, a friend of Kara’s gave us the binders she and Vasquez are wearing and Alex cut their hair, but I did all the makeup.”

“It’s truly impressive,” Lena complimented. Winn beamed with pride. “Where did you learn to do this?”

“The internet,” Winn replied. “Cosplay and makeup tutorials mostly.”

“You cosplay?” Len asked.

“I dabble.”

Maggie snorted from behind Lena as Kara’s voice filtered through her earpiece. “He’s being modest. When we’re not doing a job, he gets invited to conventions.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Lena asked. They made their living performing jobs that had a high risk of them making enemies. It seemed dangerous to do said job and then walk around with a face that could be easily recognizable even if it was only recognizable to a select few.

“Don’t worry,” Maggie assured, sitting next to her and Winn so she could clap him on the shoulder. “He’s perfectly safe, as are you. He hasn’t shown his actual face at a convention since…” Maggie’s brow furrowed and she looked down at Winn in question.

“2014 at least,” Winn supplied. “Around the time I quit CatCo and started this little adventure.”

Lena wondered how accurate the description of ‘little’ was but decided not to refute it as Maggie turned toward her.

“Plus he stays in the van most jobs anyway, unlike us. Are you ready to go? Thomas is outside.”

Lena nodded, spurring Maggie to get up and yank the van door open.

“Have fun at your meeting,” Winn said as Lena got up to follow. “And save me some pasta please? Kara totally refused.”

“That’s what you get for asking Kara, Winn,” Alex retorted.

Lena tried not to laugh as Kara launched into a tirade about the sanctity of food. Maggie’s eyerolls the entire ride over didn’t help much either.

\-----

“Luthor. Table for three.”

“Of course, Miss Luthor,” the maitre d’ said, grabbing three menus. “Right this way.”

As she and Maggie were led through the restaurant, Lena surreptitiously looked around for any sight of the DEO. She quickly located Alex and Vasquez about two tables away from the door. Kara and Lucy were seated only a few tables further, about halfway between the door and the table Lena and Maggie were being led to and a bit off to the side. As per protocol, neither pair even acknowledged her presence as she walked past.

“The eagle has landed,” Kara’s voice sounded through Lena’s earpiece. “I repeat. The eagle has landed.”

Lena nearly burst out laughing in the middle of requesting their wine. It got even worse as the waiter walked away and Lena got a perfect demonstration of how Maggie could roll her yes without actually rolling her eyes.

“What are you? Secret Service?” Maggie demanded.

“Need I remind you, Olivia extended that job offer personally to the both of us,” Kara replied.

Lena paused in her perusal of the menu and looked at Maggie. “Olivia as in the president of the United States?”

“Yeah,” Lucy answered. Lena could see the unimpressed look Lucy shot Kara from all the way across the restaurant. “She and Cat are old friends and she introduced us once.”

From Lucy’s look and Kara’s unapologetic shrug in response, Lena could tell there was more to it than that, but before she could pry, a loud gasp pierced her ear. Lena barely kept herself from flinching at the sound and could see the rest of the DEO do the same. Lucy seemed to have fared the best since she had gotten a bit of advanced warning seeing as she was sitting across the table from the source of the sound.

“Is that Asami Sato?” Kara demanded in a harsh whisper.

“Where?” Winn practically shrieked.

Lena rubbed her ear and looked toward the door. Sure enough, Miss Asami Sato of Future Industries was being led through the restaurant by the maitre d’.

“Isn’t she a famous CEO or something?” Lucy asked. Even through the earpiece, Lena could tell she knew the answer and knew exactly what she was doing.

Kara and Winn let out outraged gasps at the same time Alex released a pained groan.

“Don’t encourage them,” Alex near whined before Winn was off.

“She’s only the CEO of Future Industries, one of the largest tech and automobile companies in the world,” Winn said. “Not as good as L-Corp of course, Lena.”

“You know this, Lucy,” Kara said exasperatedly. “You practically begged me for a ride in my Satomobile when you found out I own one.”

“Not one. Five. And you still haven’t taken me for a ride in the ‘63 Sport Classic yet,” Lucy accused.

“Are they always like this?” Lena asked Maggie.

“Why do you think it took us a week before we took this job?” Maggie asked. “It doesn’t take us a week to perform a background check. We’re professionals. We have to behave at least semi professionally.”

J’onn’s voice suddenly cut through the rest of the DEOs chatter. “Mr. Schott. Will you please cut off Miss Luthor’s comms.”

Winn and the rest continued to chatter in her ear as Lena got up to greet Asami. “Asami.” Lena wrapped the other CEO in a hug before the moved to sit down. “It’s so good to see you. How are you? How’s Korra?”

“Wait,” Kara said excitedly. “You know Asa-”

A long suffering sigh cut off Kara’s words before even that was cut off as her earpiece was turned off.

“Lena,” Asami greeted, settling into her chair. “It’s good to see you too. Korra and I are doing well. She’s preparing for the upcoming martial arts championship so that’s consuming most of her time, but we still try to find time for each other in the middle of our hectic schedules.”

“I’m sure Korra loves that.”

Asami smiled. “You have no idea. But enough about my girlfriend. How are you?”

“Perfect as always,” Lena answered, flashing an easy smile.

Asami just quirked a brow, unimpressed. Lena knew that even if she had been trying, Asami would have seen right through her bullshit answer. Both growing up as daughters of, and at least in Asami’s case heir of, worldwide tech magnates, they had had the opportunity to get to know each other fairly well from attending many of the same galas and events over the years.

“I head about your mother.” Even phrased as a simple fact, Lena knew a prompt for deeper discussion when she heard one.

“I’m actually doing quite well, considering,” Lena admitted. “It’s been a month with no word so she obvious has bigger fish to fry and I’ve hired a bodyguard on top of normal security.”

Maggie nodded to Asami at the acknowledgement of her presence. Asami gave her an appraising look.

“I assure you that I am much more than meets the eyes, Miss Sato,” Maggie said under the appraisal.

“I thought no different, Miss…?”

“Sawyer,” Maggie supplied. “Maggie Sawyer.”

Before any more inquiries could be made after Maggie or Lillian, their waiter arrived to take their orders. Their conversation turned back to Korra and her upcoming world championship match until their food arrived.

“As much as I love catching up,” Asami said, pulling her food toward her as the waiter left again, “your message made it clear that this was more than a social call.”

Lena took a sip of wine to settle her excitement. Asami was close enough to maybe warrant the label of friend, but that didn’t mean Lena wouldn’t be hard pressed to convince her to accept her proposal. They were both still CEOs of major tech companies after all and business came before pleasure even between semi friends.

“It is,” Lena agreed as she set her glass down. “I have a proposition for you.” A quirked eyebrow was all the prompting Lena got to continue. “Imagine this: human wings.”

Asami’s expression turned skeptical. Maggie’s turned slightly pained as she surreptitiously rubbed her ear. “How long after your viewing of ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ did you have this idea?”

“Well technically, this idea has been brewing since ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. ‘Spider-Man Homecoming’ just spurred it into reality.” Asami’s eyebrow crept higher. “Think about it Asami. They not only have military applications, but construction and rescue applications as well. And that’s just the beginning. The sky’s the limit with these things. Or at least 2500 meters is the limit until we can also build a suit that can protect a person from the sudden change in altitude. With Future Industries and L-Corp tech, I’m sure we can make this a reality.”

Lena waited with bated breath as Asami took a slow bite of her food. She chewed thoughtfully for a few moments before swallowing.

“Do you have any specs for this?”

Lena decided to ignore the fact that Asami sounded like she thought she was crazy for even entertaining the idea and fought the urge to fist pump. “I’ll have my secretary send them to yours as soon as I get back to the office.”

“No promises, but,” Asami offered a small smile, “if I like what I see, I’ll call to set up an appointment for Varrick to come out and talk some more.”

Lena allowed a small smile of her own, trying not to make it look as giddy as she felt. A promise to look at it wasn’t a yes on the collaboration. “I look forward to it.”

Whatever Asami’s reply would have been, it was cut off by the tell tale click of a gun being cocked ringing through the restaurant. It was almost immediately followed by her earpiece crackling to life. Nothing the DEO was saying made an impact through the sudden ringing in Lena’s ears. She gripped her leg in a vice grip and made sure it was the only outward sign of her panic.

“Listen up!” a voice rang out near the door.

Asami and the half of the restaurant not facing the door turned around at the sound. Lena finally caught a glimpse of the intruders. A tall, well built man in a suit with a bandana wrapped around the bottom half of his face stood in the entryway of the restaurant with an assault rifle in his hand. He was flanked by four similarly dressed and armed people.

“Here’s how this is going to go,” the point man announced, taking a step deeper into the restaurant. “My associates here are going to go around and nicely offer you a bag and you, being the generous ladies and gentlemen that you are, are going to give them all of your valuables. If any of us see even one wrong move, you will find that our good will only goes to far.”

With a flick of his hand, the other four gunmen stepped forward, shoving their bags at the closest tables. Lena tried to calm her heart rate and breathing. A panic attack would do nothing but make the situation worse. She used the breathing techniques an old therapist had given her and tried to focus on the voices coming through her earpiece to see what sort of plan the DEO had. As she slowly regained control of her panic, she slowly started to be bombarded by the rapid fire information Winn was relaying. If there was a plan, Lena had missed it. She really hoped there was a plan.

A commotion suddenly pulled her attention toward a couple seated near the door.

“What are you?” the gunman demanded. “Deaf?”

“He is,” Alex replied. Beneath her scared facade, Lena could tell Alex was about one wrong word from knocking the guy on his ass. “Please. Let me translate.”

“What? This isn’t translation enough?” The gunman shoved the muzzle of his rifle into Vasquez’s face.

Lena missed whatever happened next as another gunmen appeared at their table.

“Into the bag ladies,” he ordered.

Without a word, Asami and Maggie dropped their valuables into the bag. Lena forced herself to unfreeze and shakily followed suit. The second her valuables left her hand, she drew her hand back as if burned, hoping for the gunman’s swift retreat. Instead, he paused.

“Huh,” he said in surprise. His voice then hardened with anger. “I know you. You’re Lena Luthor of Luthorcorp. Your brother blew up all those people.” Any sting at the mention of her brother was buried as the gunman swung his rifle around to point directly at Lena’s chest. Lena fought against the urge to throw up. “You deserve to pay with more than just your valuables.”

“I think you’ll find,” Asami suddenly interjected, pulling Lena and the gunman’s attention toward her, “that it’s called L-Corp now.”

As if waiting for that signal, a few things happened at once. Maggie lunged across the table and dove into Lena, sending them both to the floor, just as a shot rang out. The bullet went wide as Asami sprung from her seat, knocking the gun aside to give herself room to hit him with the electric glove she had put on at some point.

Through a gap between Maggie’s arm and the floor, Lena watched as the rest of the DEO sprung into action. Alex took out the gunman that had been harrassing Vasquez with one brutal elbow to the face. Vasquez vaulted over a table and incapacitated another gunman with a fierce kick to the head. Lucy kneed another in the groin before using his momentum against him and kneeing him in the face. Kara retrieved the man’s rifle as he went down, turning and training it on the last gunman in one fluid motion. Without any hesitation, Kara shot twice, hitting the gunman once in each kneecap. Before the man could even let out the first groan of pain, Alex was across the room, knocking him unconscious with the butt of his own gun. Almost as fast as it had started, the fight was over.

For a moment, the whole restaurant was silent and still, but then the DEO sprung into action again. Vasquez and Lucy went for the bags they had placed their valuables in, tying two of the gunmen up along the way. Alex tied up the gunman she had knocked out with the gun as Kara tossed the rifle she was holding aside and came toward Lena, Maggie, and Asami’s table.

“Are you alright, Miss Luthor?” Kara asked, her voice slightly deeper than normal.

Maggie shifted off of Lena and helped her sit up, giving her a full view of Kara. The concern was back in the blonde’s eyes although Lena could tell she was trying to reel it in slightly to look more like a stranger worried about another stranger instead of a bodyguard worried about who they were supposed to be guarding.

“I’m fine,” Lena said, She avoided direct eye contact so Kara couldn’t see the truth. While it wasn’t a lie per se, her heart rate, adrenaline, and breathing were all levelling out, Lena didn’t want Kara to see she was still recovering from nearly having a panic attack.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lena saw Kara hesitate for a second before nodding and kneeling down to tie up the final gunman.

“Thanks for the assist,” Kara said to Asami as she stood up.

Asami’s electric glove crackled menacingly as she eyed Kara with suspicion. “And who exactly did I assist?”

Kara opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off as Alex called out from the front door.

“Kirk. It’s time to go. Sulu’s outside.”

Lena nearly laughed. Of course Kara would insist on Star Trek code names.

“Sorry,” Kara said, turning to look at both Lena and Asami. “Gotta go. It was nice meeting you both. Huge fan.”

“Kirk!”

Kara grimaced and darted away, her and Alex quickly disappearing out the front door just as sirens started to sound in the distance.

“If I introduce you to Barry,” Kara’s voice sounded in her ear, “will you introduce me to Asami?”

Lena couldn’t help but let out a short bark of laughter, quickly covering it up with a cough as Asami turned to look at her with a quizzical expression on her face.

\-----

“Sawyer! Hey, Sawyer!”

Lena and Maggie turned away from where they were waiting to give their statement. Lena quickly zoned in on the source of the noise to reveal an officer in his late twenties rushing toward them.

“Hey, Rubio,” Maggie greeted. “What are you doing here? Last time I checked, no one here died.”

“Well, when I heard what happened, I knew it had to have your name all over it and I came down.”

“Aw. I didn’t know you cared.”

“I don’t,” Rubio said, straight faced. A small twinkle in his eyes betrayed his real feelings as he pulled out a small notepad. “Now let me guess. Your statement reads something like: the second you saw the gunmen, you covered your employer, Miss…?” He turned to look at Lena with a look that showed he knew exactly who she was and thought of her with nothing but disdain. Forgetting her name was just a power play on his part.

Lena sighed and obliged him. It was better to just not make a fuss and get through it quicker. “Lena Luthor.”

“Miss Lena Luthor,” he repeated, turning back to Maggie with a raised eyebrow that was not lost on Lena. “And you didn’t see anything that happened.”

“Correct. One second I was putting my valuables in a sack, and the next, all the gunmen were on the floor. It’s like you can read my mind,” Maggie laughed. “If you had been this good when we were partners. I might not have quit.”

Rubio laughed loudly for a moment. “Speaking of which,” he said, turning serious, “I need to speak to you about something.”

Maggie’s expression immediately turned serious. She and Rubio glanced over at Lena and Lena got the hint. She was intimately acquainted with not being wanted.

“I’ll just go get checked out by the EMTs,” Lena said, pointing over her shoulder.

Maggie and Rubio followed her slightly to keep her in Maggie’s sights, but remained slightly out of earshot. Lena tried not to listen while they started to talk, but she quickly became aware that Rubio wasn’t the quietest guy on the force.

“Harvey wanted me to tell you that your girl has been getting into trouble,” Rubio said in something slightly above a whisper.

“When is she not?” Maggie scoffed, her forced nonchalance obviously hiding worry and pain.

“No. More trouble that normal.”

Rubio raised his eyebrows significantly. Maggie fell silent. Only years of experience reading people helped Lena see Maggie’s pain and worry intensify even as the EMT shined a light in her eyes.

“Why doesn’t Harvey just tell me himself?” Maggie demanded gruffly.

“If he tells you, he’s illegally discussing an open investigation. If I tell you, I’m just discussing some gossip I heard on the grapevine.”

“An open investigation!?” Maggie whisper shouted incredulously. She opened her mouth angrily before pausing. She took a deep breath, calming herself down before continuing. “Why tell me?”

“Come on, Maggie,” Rubio said exasperatedly. “I know it’s been six years, but you’re obviously still hung up on her.”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Maggie snapped.

“Okay,” Rubio backed down. “Then do you mind telling me why you’re working for Lena fucking Luthor?

Lena flinched the vitriol in the man’s tone.

“Did that hurt, Miss?” the EMT asked from where he was inspecting her forearm.

“No. Sorry,” Lena assured him.

“-and you know how Kara gets,” she heard Maggie finish.

“Determined and with a death wish,” Rubio grumbled. “But does she have to drag the rest of you down with her?”

“She doesn’t drag us anywhere,” Maggie bit out. She sounded as if she and Rubio had had this conversation before. “And besides, half of them are going along quite willingly and the more I learn, the more I’m inclined to believe they may be right.”

“Are you insane!?”

The EMT in front of Lena jumped at the sudden outburst and whipped his head around to glare at Maggie and Rubio. Maggie shot them an apologetic look before dragging Rubio far enough away that even his harsh whispers were too quiet to overhear.

The EMT eyed them for a few more moments before turning back to finish looking her over in silence.

“You’re good to go,” he finally said a few minutes later. “Just make sure to give an officer your statement before you go.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

Lena stepped down from the back of the ambulance at the same time Maggie jogged up, Rubio nowhere to be found.

“I’m sorry about him. He can be quite,” She hesitated as if looking for the right word before grimacing and settling on, “abrasive.”

“It’s fine. I’m used to it.” Lena turned away before she could fully take in the look of pity Maggie shot her way and motioned toward an ambulance across the street. “I’d like to speak with Asami before we go.”

“Of course, Miss Luthor,” Maggie said, following closely behind her. “I’ve already settled our statements with Rubio and called Thomas. He’s ready whenever you are.”

Lena nodded her thanks.

“Just because my girlfriend is the world martial arts champion doesn’t mean I can slack off with my own training,” Lena heard Asami tell a police officer as she walked closer. “Someone has to keep her humble.”

Lena chuckled at that, drawing Asami’s attention toward her. The younger CEO quickly said a word to the officer before hopping down from the ambulance and meeting Lena halfway.

“Are you okay?” Asami asked.

“They gave me a clean bill of health,” Lena half answered. “Are you okay?”

“This wasn’t the first time I’ve faced down gunmen and it probably won’t be the last.”

Lena nodded, unfortunately understanding completely. “I know this probably wasn’t a scheme of my mother’s but if you do decide to send Varrick, it might be best to wait until all this blows over.”

Asami nodded, pulling Lena into a hug. “Stay safe. Call if you need anything.” She waited for Lena’s nod of affirmation, even though Lena knew it was never going to happen, better to keep as many people out of the line of fire as possible, before pulling back and looking at Maggie. “Keep her safe.”

“That’s my job, Miss Sato,” Maggie said politely.

“Be sure to tell your Star Trek buddies the same.” Lena was sure her look of surprise mirrored Maggie’s as Asami smiled and started to walk away. “Now I hate to eat and run, but I have a plane to catch. I’ll see you around, Lena.”

With that, Asami disappeared into the crowd of restaurant patrons, police officers, and EMTs. Lena and Maggie just watched her go. Lena didn’t know why she was so surprised. Asami was as smart as her if not smarter in some areas. Of course she would be able to figure it out. Kara and the rest of the DEO weren’t exactly subtle either.

Maggie recovered first, motioning behind Lena to where the police had set up a barricade in the street. “Thomas is waiting for us.”

Lena hesitated another second before turning and walking with Maggie to the car.

Halfway there she groaned and rubbed at the bridge of her nose in frustration. Maggie shot her a questioning look as she lifted the barricade for Lena to walk under.

“Jess is never going to leave L-Corp now. I’m going to have to build a second room off of my office,” Lena explained. Maggie only chuckled in response.

\-----

Lena couldn’t sleep again. Usually, a panic attack like the one she had almost had that afternoon left her exhausted, helping her fall asleep before her head even hit the pillow. Instead, she felt wide awake Lena was sure the attempted robbery that afternoon hadn’t been related to her mother in any way, but the DEO wanted to make one hundred percent sure and Maggie and J’onn’s contacts in the police force hadn’t told them anything yet. The possible uncertainty buzzed through Lena, keeping her wide awake and staring at her ceiling.

Finally, Lena rolled over and got out of bed. Maybe a glass of scotch and looking at the skyline from the safety of her balcony doorway would help settle her nerves.

Lena grabbed her robe and threw it on as she silently padded out into her office. She instinctively scanned the balcony, heart leaping into her throat at the sight of someone outside. As fast as her heart sped up, it calmed as she recognized the figure as Kara. It immediately sped back up as she realized exactly how the blonde was utilizing her balcony. She rushed across her office and burst out onto the balcony.

“Do you have a fucking death wish!?”

Kara turned from where she was sitting on the balcony railing, feet dangling over nothing but air. “I’d say no,” Kara replied, “but your tone suggests you’d disagree.”

“You’re damn right I’d disagree,” Lena bit out, heart not slowing in the slightest at the nonchalance in Kara’s voice. “Will you please get down?”

“If you insist.”

Lena looked away as Kara swung herself around to plant her feet on the balcony floor. Kara probably deserved someone to see if she ended up plummeting to her death, but that someone was not going to be Lena.

As soon as she was sure Kara was safely on firm ground, Lena looked back up at her in disbelief, unsure of what to make of her. What kind of person casually sat on a balcony railing thirty-three stories up in the air and dangled their legs over the side? Kara just stared back, accepting the scrutiny.

After a moment, Lena turned back toward her office. “I need a drink.” Without a backwards glance, she made a beeline for her drinks cabinet, quickly pouring herself two fingers of scotch and slamming it back. Lionel would have been appalled, but at that point, Lena didn’t care.

“Good news,” Kara said from behind her as Lena poured a second glass. “Maggie got word from her police buddies and the gunmen from this afternoon are in no way connected to Lillian.”

Lena felt relief and exhaustion simultaneously rush through her. On the one hand, her mother was still in the wind. On the other hand, her mother was still in the wind.

“What’s going to happen to the gunmen?” Lena asked, turning to face Kara.

“Jail,” Kara answered succinctly. “Between video, eyewitness accounts, and their own confessions, they’ll be going away for a while.”

“Good.”

They lapsed into silence. Lena quickly realized that, once again, she was talking to one of her protection detail in nothing but her pajamas. She took a sip of her scotch and cast around for something to say.

She finally settled on, “You actually cut your hair.”

She internally winced as Kara self consciously started to rub at the short hair at the nape of her neck. “Yeah,” Kara said, weariness and discomfort practically dripping off the single word. “I’m sorry.”

Lena blinked in surprise at the apology before rushing to try and erase the hurt in Kara’s voice, her words tumbling over themselves in her haste. “No,” Lena half shouted. She quickly modulated her volume to something more acceptable. “I didn’t mean-I just wasn’t sure if Winn had performed some cosplay magic or if you had actually cut it. It suits you.”

Kara’s teeth flashed in the moonlight as she smiled. “Thanks. I like it better this way.”

“Why didn’t you cut it before?” Lena winced again as Kara’s smile dropped, her hands dropping as well to stuff themselves deep into the pockets of her cargo pants. She obviously needed to work on having a better filter when Kara was around. “I’m sorry,” Lena rushed out. “You don’t have to-”

“No,” Kara cut her off. “It’s okay.” The blonde bounced on the tips of her toes for a moment, as if psyching herself up for what she was about to do. Lena opened her mouth to tell her again she didn’t have to answer her insensitive question, but before she could even get a word out, Kara was talking again. “This job is all about discretion. People tend to stare when my hair is short. That’s the opposite of discreet.”

Even from across the room, Lena could see the pain in Kara’s eyes at her words. Lena wondered how often Kara had had to listen to such justifications in the past and how often Kara had had to repeat them to herself to make herself feel even a smidge better only to have it fail.

“I know I can’t make the stares hurt any less,” Lena began carefully. “But I do know that you’re just as capable at doing your job now as you were before you cut your hair and that’s all that matters to me. Not that you need my seal of approval.” Lena couldn’t help but smile as Kara’s smile returned full force. “Besides,” Lena continued, “if you’re still worried about discretion, you seem to spend most of your time interacting with your team, me, or Jess and hiding out in your large ship on my roof. Nothing is more discreet than that.”

Kara laughed, returning to rubbing her hand on her neck. “The ship is actually shielded. Unless you’re coming at it from the tarmac of your roof, it can’t be seen.”

Lena stared at Kara in shock for a few seconds before blurting out the first thing that came to mind. “Seriously? How do you do that?” Lena’s mind raced with the possibilities.

Kara laughed again, motioning over her shoulder to the balcony. “I could show you if you’d like.”

Lena hesitated only a second to think of the time before throwing that thought off the balcony. This was too exciting to pass up no matter what time it was.

“I’d like that very much. On one condition.” Kara raised an eyebrow expectantly as Lena set her half drunk glass of scotch down. As soon as her hands were free, Lena motioned over her own shoulder to the doors leading out of her office. “We use the stairs like normal people.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Kara complained even as she made her way deeper into the office and away from her balcony exit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally hadn't planned on having Kara be butch in this fic, but then I saw Foley's butch!Kara art and got really excited and inspired so I decided to write the last section before posting this. If you haven't seen Foley's butch!Kara art yet, you should really go check it out because honestly, it's breath taking and amazing.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter and that y'all have a good day or night or whatever the time of day you are reading this at. :)


	9. 28 August 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a short chapter, this one really kicked my ass for some reason. I hope y'all like it.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Lena said, running up the ramp and into the cargo hold of the DEO ship. “A board member was throwing a tantrum and needed my…” The tension in the cargo hold suddenly hit her like a truck, forcing her to a halt only a few steps past the ramp. “...attention.”

Lena scanned the cargo hold to try and find the source of the tension. She quickly caught sight of James leaning against the wall behind Winn’s chair. Lena couldn’t help but blink in surprise. Other than their confrontation a week prior, Lena hadn’t seen or heard James since the night the DEO had taken the job. He had adamantly refused to come to every weekly meeting since, choosing to be updated after, and Lena wondered why he had suddenly changed his mind.

“Alex and Vasquez aren’t here today, Lena,” Kara said, her voice tight with tension, but obviously trying to come across as cheerful, “so you can come sit next to me today.”

A low growl seemed to involuntarily rip its way past James’s throat at Kara’s use of Lena’s first name. Kara’s glare intensified and she growled back. Winn let out a shaky, anxiety ridden exhale.

Lena carefully made her way over to Alex’s usual seat. Lucy winked at her along the way and Lena fought the urge to laugh. While it would ease her tension, it would most assuredly cause others’ to go up and she already felt like the tension in the room could be cut with a knife. She purposefully brushed against Kara as she sat down, trying to ease some of the blonde’s tension. It seemed to work as Kara let out a barely audible breath, the tightness in her shoulder and jaw easing slightly. The sound of porcelain on metal grated through the room as Kara pushed Lena’s mug of coffee over to her. James visibly ground his teeth.

“Why don’t you sit down and we can get started, James,” J’onn suggested.

James shifted into a more comfortable position against the wall. “I’m good right here, thanks.”

The tension seemed to thicken as if the room itself was waiting to see who would break first.

It ended up being J’onn as he turned to his right. “Maggie,” he prompted.

“J’onn and I were able to go pick up the results of Allen’s analysis yesterday,” Maggie began without preamble. “I’ve sent a copy to all of your tablets.” At that precise moment, Lena’s tablet lit up with a new notification. She opened it and started to look through the information. “Winn, if you will.” Winn pressed a few buttons on the table and the screens on the wall lit up to display the results. Maggie flicked through the results on her tablet and the display changed to show a large machine gun from different angles. “Allen was able to match the bullets to this gun. It’s so above military grade, I don’t think Alex and Vasquez even have one. Trust me. I checked.”

Kara jolted slightly and looked away from James for the first time since Lena walked in. “Even their private armory?”

Lena tried not to think about exactly how many weapons would be needed to supply enough armories that there needed to be the delineation of a private armory as opposed to a different armory.

“No,” Maggie replied bitterly. “But Vasquez was sure they don’t have one when I asked. She said she’d double check when they got back. And Alex is going to reach out to her FBI buddies as well. In the meantime, Kara and Winn, can you reach out to your contacts and see about any recent sales?”

Kara and Winn both nodded and went to make notes on their tablets.

“With these guns,” Lucy said,” we had to have faced stormtroopers to escape without getting hit like we did. Any word on the blood you collected? Are they from a galaxy far, far away?”

Lucy waggled her eyebrows suggestively, causing Winn to laugh. Lena couldn’t help but let out a laugh of her own, quickly silencing as James’s scowl intensified. Kara, on the other hand, positively beamed at her, and Lena found herself regretting stopping. Kara’s smile made up for the scowl tenfold. Maggie just rolled her eyes. J’onn let out an almost imperceptible sigh.

“They’re actually from a city very, very close. Relatively speaking.” Maggie tapped on her tablet and a picture of a blonde man replaced the gun on the screen. Lena jolted as she recognized the cruel intensity of the man’s face. “Meet John Corben, resident of Metropolis.”

“I know him,” Lena blurted out. She made sure to maintain a cool outward appearance as the whole DEO turned to look at her. “He used to work for Lex,” Lena continued. “He always gave me the creeps.”

“You have a good eye,” Maggie said. “From what J’onn and I found on the way back from Central City, he was in and out of juvie practically his entire childhood and then became an international assassin for hire right out of high school. He disappeared right after your brother’s arrest and hasn’t been heard from since. He’s wanted in at least fifteen countries and almost half the states for armed robbery, murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, grand theft auto, and arson. And that’s only what the authorities know of.”

“Do the authorities know Corben is in National City?” Kara asked.

“They don’t know what they have,” J’onn asked, “and since there was no body and minimal blood, they didn’t rush the blood test. My guess is they won’t know for another week.”

“Should we tip them off?”

It took Lena a moment to realize the DEO were all looking at her expectantly. She quickly weighed the pros and cons of alerting the authorities.

“Do we have a location for Corben yet?” Lena asked.

“No.”

“Then no,” Lena settled on. “It would do us and the authorities no good to send them on a wild goose chase.” It would also give the DEO the advantage of a headstart on this lead to find her mother, but Lena decided to leave that part out. She was also booked solid all week and she couldn’t afford to move any meetings around. If the police wanted to question her about a former associate of her brother’s, it would be best done the week after.

“Good,” J’onn said. “Kara and Winn. You have your assignments. The rest of you. Continue to search for Lillian, but broaden the search to include Corben. Dismissed.”

A flurry of movement followed J’onn’s words. Lena turned to talk to Kara only to find her already facing her.

“Walk you to your office?” Kara asked.

Lena opened her mouth to protest before catching sight of Kara’s gaze flicking over to where James was still standing by the wall. Lena could feel his glare like a pressure on the back of her neck. She shut her mouth and swallowed the protest. “That would be great. Thank you.”

Kara beamed and leapt up from her chair. Lena stood with more grace, resolutely ignoring James as they made their way off the ship.

“What spurred on James’s sudden appearance?” Lena asked as soon as she could feel the eyes on the back of her neck disappear.

When no answer was readily forthcoming, Lena turned to see Kara’s clear reluctant to answer. Lena just raised her eyebrow in prompting. Whatever it was, Lena was sure she could handle it.

Kara sighed in resignation as she held open the stairwell door for Lena. “Alex and Vasquez are gone for the day. James didn’t believe there were enough people there to keep an eye on you.” Under the slight sting of hurt, Lena couldn’t say she was surprised. “Which is funny if you think about it,” Kara continued, the humor in her voice clearly forced. “Most of us stopped keeping an eye on you really early on, so really, he should have been sitting in from the beginning.”

“Most of you?” Lena asked before she could think better of it. She came to a stop right before the end of the stairs and turned to look at Kara. With the two steps separating them, she was lot taller than normal.

“The rest of them will come around,” Kara said with conviction. Her eyes burned with a righteous surety Lena wished she possessed. “You’re too good, Lena. It’s only a matter of time until they see it.”

A strange warmth blossomed in Lena’s chest at Kara’s words. She hadn’t felt anything like it since Lex and she refused to feel it again after he had been sent to prison, so she shoved it down to be looked at later and replaced it with her more familiar frustration. They didn’t have time. Her mother could strike at any time and it would do absolutely no good to be divided when she came. But she supposed beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Where are Alex and Vasquez?” Lena asked, turning and continuing down the stairs.

Thankfully, Kara took the change of subject without comment. “Midvale,” she answered excitedly. “Vasquez likes going home for her birthday, so they left last night after our celebration.”

Lena frowned, trying to recall what she had read in Vasquez's file. “I thought she was from Texas.”

Lena looked over just in time to see Kara’s expression darken for a second before clearing again. “Vasquez is family,” Kara said. “Eliza and I keep joking that Alex needs to propose already so we can make it official, but either way. Midvale is her home. We are her home.”

Lena felt a bittersweet pang in her chest. She could remember when Lex had told her that he and the Luthor Mansion were her home. That they would always be her home. He had spoken with the same amount of conviction and assuredness as Kara. Lena wondered who and where her home was now.

“So is Alex going to propose?” Lena asked to distract herself from her thoughts.

“Actually,” Kara said excitedly. She looked around as they stepped out of the stairwell and into the foyer as if looking for hidden cameras and microphones. Between the sweep both her regular building security and the DEO did every day, Lena was sure they were safe but she decided not to comment on it, “Vasquez and I were out ring shopping when I got the call from Miss Grant. She’s planning on proposing after this job is done.”

“And Alex has no clue?” Lena asked, walking into her office. Alex seemed to be able to read Kara like an open book even when she was trying to lie and she was also a trained interrogator.

Kara’s excitement and rate of speech went up as she continued to talk. She bounced excitedly on her toes when she came to a stop in the middle of the office. “Nope,” she said, popping the ‘p’. “The ring is safely hidden in my bedroom with my best maid speech and my custom made cufflinks.” She made little finger guns. “They look like little handguns.”

“Cufflinks?” Lena parroted faintly. She suddenly had a mental image of Kara in a navy blue suit with a red skinny tie. Lena’s brain short circuited. Had Jess turned on the heater in her office? She really needed to talk to her about that. It was the middle of August in California. The heater was really unnecessary.

“Yeah,” Kara said, pulling Lena’s attention away from the heater and back to her.

It turned out not to be helpful in the slightest as she took in what Kara was wearing: a tan pair of jeans and a dark heather blue button up, untucked and with the sleeves rolled up to her mid forearm. Lena really needed to talk to Jess about the heater.

As if summoned, a knock sounded on the office door before opening to reveal Jess on the other side. Whatever she had been about to say was lost as she caught sight of Kara standing in the middle of the room.

“Kara,” Jess said, her tone taking on that of a reprimand. “I thought I told you--”

“Yep,” Kara interjected, bounding toward the door. “I was just on my way out. I’ll see you at one-thirty, Lena.”

Lena frowned, Kara usually came for lunch at noon. Before she could ask, Kara was out the door. Lena turned to Jess for an answer instead.

“You have a meeting at noon that couldn’t be moved,” Jess explained. “I told Kara your lunch needed to be moved. In the meantime, you have a meeting in five minutes with the board.”

Lena barely suppressed a groan.

“I have a ready made excuse if it’s not over in an hour and a half,” Jess said, amusement evident in her tone.

“Thank you,” Lena enthused as they started to make their way out the door. “And can you turn the heater off in my office please.”

Jess frowned. “The heater isn’t on in your office.”

Lena flushed a bright red, quickly turning away before Jess could see. The slight smirk on Jess’s face said she wasn’t totally successful.


	10. 30 August 2017

A knock sounded on her office door at noon on the dot. Lena practically slammed her laptop shut, grateful for the respite from answering emails.

“Come in,” Lena called, standing up from her desk to go walk to the couch where she and Kara usually played chess during lunch.

As reluctant as Lena usually was to stop work for half an hour to eat lunch, she found herself sometimes looking forward to what had become tri weekly lunches. Kara proved to be a great conversationalist and it was no less fun when Winn decided to tag along.

Lena stopped halfway around her desk as she finally looked up and caught sight of someone that was neither Kara nor Winn walking into her office.

Alex lifted a bag of food almost as a peace offering. “Kara said you like salad, so I got you lunch.”

“Where is Kara?” Lena asked bluntly. The surprise at seeing the wrong Danvers sister in front of her unfortunately threw decorum out the window before she could snatch it back.

Alex’s lips twitched and her eyes sparkled with mirth. It looked like she wanted to say something before swallowing the urge and slamming the door on any outward sign of her amusement, obviously not comfortable enough with Lena to crack jokes. Lena only felt grateful. She wasn’t comfortable enough with Alex to know how to react if she did decide to joke.

“Her presence was urgently requested elsewhere,” Alex finally settled on as an answer. “But she didn’t want you to miss lunch and since Winn is also currently occupied, you’re stuck with me.”

“She could have sent a note,” Lena said as she rounded her desk again to sit back down. She tried to keep the annoyed huffiness out of her voice, but from the small smile on Alex’s lips as she sat down, she failed. “You don’t have to stay.”

“I was given specific instructions,” Alex countered, unpacking the bag. She pulled a salad and fork out and slid it across the desk before pulling out a loaded chicken sandwich for herself. “And Kara wasn’t sure you’d eat if she said she wasn’t coming to she decided not to say anything.”

Lena had to hand it to her. Kara had been right in her assumption and had made the right move. Lena would have cancelled the second she caught wind of someone other than Kara coming and would have worked through lunch no matter how boring and annoying answering emails was. Lena wondered if she could still cancel. Alex looked less than happy to be eating lunch with her and Lena could still answer a few more emails before her next meeting. If she ate while she worked, she wouldn’t even be skipping lunch, so Jess and Kara technically couldn’t be mad.

Jess and Kara’s disappointed faces still appeared in her mind’s eye. With it came the reminder that she was trying to cultivate trust between herself and the DEO and a perfect opportunity had just fallen into her lap. Sometimes she hated her brain’s reasonability.

Lena dragged her attention toward her eating companion and cast around for something to talk about. Unfortunately, what little she knew about Alex was either something she didn’t know anything about and so couldn’t hold a conversation or something she just didn’t want to talk about.

Finally, Lena settled on a topic she hoped was suitable.

“How was your vacation?”

Alex paused with her sandwich halfway to her mouth to look at Lena blankly. Lena would have found it funny if she wasn’t internally panicking that she had just chosen the wrong topic.

“You weren’t there at the meeting on Monday,” Lena tried hopefully.

Something Lena couldn’t identify flashed in Alex’s eyes before being replaced with wariness, then contemplation, and then all emotion disappeared as she seemingly came to a decision.

“It was good,” Alex said before taking a bite of her sandwich. Lena nodded, unsure of what to say. She was saved from coming up with something as Alex finished chewing and swallowing and continued. “Eliza spoiled Vasquez with a pecan pie she didn’t have to share with Kara and we went surfing.”

“You surf?”

“When I can.”

And Lena ran out of things to say. She nodded to show she had heard what Alex had said and looked down at her salad, toying with some lettuce with her fork. She quickly started to run through all of the conversation starters Lillian had drilled into her growing up. She cursed as she realized that every single one was geared toward old, white businessmen, most of which ran or helped run tech companies. Lena’s urge to promote women in STEM and business fields grew.

A sigh suddenly broke through Lena’s internal cursing. Lena looked up to see Alex looking at her expectantly.

“Have you ever watched the X-Files?”

Lena frowned slightly, vaguely recognizing the name, but knowing nothing past that. She shook her head.

Alex sighed again and held out her hand. “Let me see your tablet.”

Lena raised her eyebrow in confusion, but handed her tablet over. Alex took it in one hand, brushing the other off on her pants. Lena grimaced at the thought of the crumbs on her carpet. On the brightside, it was easier to clean up than the barbeque sauce Kara had accidentally spilled the week prior.

After a few moments, Alex handed Lena her tablet back. Lena looked down to find a picture of two people back to back with ‘The X-Files’ written in big letters across the top dominating her screen. She looked back up at Alex as the red head spoke.

“I gave you access to the X-Files in my digital library,” Alex said. “It’s about two FBI agents that investigate the supernatural. Just if you have time.”

“Thank you,” Lena said, looking back down at her tablet.

“Welcome,” Alex said gruffly as if she wasn’t sure what to do next.

Lena wondered why Kara had thought sending Alex was a good idea as they both silently turned back to their lunches. It was obvious that they had nothing in common to talk about and while Alex’s guarded behaviour made it hard to ascertain, Lena got the feeling that the redhead wanted to be anywhere but in Lena’s office eating lunch with her. Lena wondered what Kara had promised her in exchange for her cooperation and effort.

They were saved from coming up with another topic of stilted conversation by a notification on Alex’s tablet. Lena focused on her salad to give her some semblance of privacy as Alex ate the last bite of her sandwich and pulled out her tablet to check it.

“Kara has some new information for us,” Alex relayed, frowning down at her tablet.

Lena was already halfway out of her seat, her fork hitting her desk with a clatter. “My mother--”

Alex cut her off with a shake of her head. “It doesn’t look to be about your mother,” Alex assured, standing up and clearing away the remains of her lunch. Lena quickly followed suit. Alex politely held her office door open for her.

“Thank you,” Lena directed at Alex. She immediately turned to face Jess’s desk, seeing her secretary’s surprise and stress rise as she caught sight of Lena walking through the door instead of Alex. “I’ll be back in time for my meeting with Dan and the rest of the IT team,” Lena assured before Jess could protest.

Jess shut her mouth so hard, Lena was surprised an audible click couldn’t be heard. Instead, Jess ground her teeth and glared at Alex as she walked past he desk. Alex ignored her and made her way over to the stairwell door, holding the door for Lena again.

Lena went for a silent nod of gratitude this time around, a gesture Alex returned, and then they were in the stairwell, silently making their way up to the roof. Lena took the silence as an opportunity to wonder what kind of information Kara had for them. She glanced at Alex to see if she could glean any information from the bodyguard seeing as how she knew Kara the best and had the added advantage of knowing what had pulled Kara away from lunch, but the ex-FBI agent’s expression gave nothing away. Lena couldn’t decide whether to be irritated or impressed by Alex’s ability to give nothing away. Lena had learned the same skill from her mother. She wondered where Alex had learned it.

Lena pushed all of the questions buzzing around in her head to the back as they made their way out onto the tarmac of the roof. The sweltering summer California sun had softened the tarmac enough that walking across it in heels was proving to be a tricky task. Alex subtly shortened her strides to keep close. Lena wondered what her board would think if she suddenly invested in a pair of combat boots like Alex’s. Just as quickly as the idea had appeared, Lena discarded it. Combat boots would definitely aid in walking, but Lena bet her entire company that Alex’s feet were hot and sweaty and just all around unpleasant feeling in them. She’d stick with her slightly less stifling, if trickier to walk in heels.

They soon reached the air conditioned relief of the ship’s cargo hold and Lena stopped for a second just inside to close her eyes and bask in it. Alex continued deeper into the ship.

Lena allowed herself another moment to bask in the glory that was man made cooling systems before opening her eyes and walking forward.

Nearly immediately, she slowed her approach as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of her. Three of the screens on the wall seemed to all be displaying a different point of view of a first person shooting video game. Four screens in the corner were playing a blown up version of what looked like a recent western with subtitles. A single screen in the opposite corner was running a search so fast the text was basically a blur. The three screens surrounding it were all split views of the multitude of cameras the DEO had installed.

In front of it all sat a comfy looking couch. Winn and Kara sat at one end and in the middle of respectively, both focused on two of the video game screens. Vasquez sat between them and seemed to be simultaneously watching the western and keeping Kara from smacking the controller out of Winn’s hand, whether to keep him from winning or in excitement, Lena couldn’t tell. A fourth person Lena didn’t recognize sat at the other end of the couch next to Kara. Upon closer inspection, however, Lena recognized the extra party member to be--

“Carter?”

At the sound of his name, Carter Grant turned away from the video game he was playing to look over the back of the couch at her.

“Lena!” he exclaimed in the gentle manner of his that Lena found endlessly endearing. He paused his game and threw down the controller as he got up, rounding the couch to greet her with a hug. Lena automatically opened her arms to hug him back.

“Carter,” Lena repeated. “What are you doing here?”

“Mom had a meeting so I convinced her to let Kara pick me up from school.”

Lena nodded, suddenly getting her answer as to why Kara had missed lunch. “Speaking of Kara,” Lena said, smiling at Carter, “can I speak with her for a moment?”

“Sure.”

With that, Carter untangled himself from their hug and hurried to sit back down to continued his game. Kara snapped to attention, obviously surprised that Lena wanted to speak with her, but dutifully hurrying after her back to the mouth of the cargo hold. Lena made sure to stop far enough away that they wouldn’t be overheard, but that they were still within the reaches of the air conditioner.

“What are you doing bringing Carter here?” Lena hissed.

Kara’s hands shot up in a calming gesture. “Before you go any further, know that I have already received this lecture from Alex.”

“But she hasn’t spoken to you since we came in,” Lena said, trying to recall if the pair had spoken in sign language at any point

Kara waved two fingers in front of her eyes. “It’s all in the eyes.”

“That doesn’t change the face that you brought a kid here, Kara,” Lena reiterated, bringing the conversation back on track.

“He’s perfectly safe,” Kara assured. “Nobody’s attacked you personally since we took this job, he’s sitting in the most secure aircraft on the planet, and he’s surrounded by a bunch of ex-military and law enforcement that make their living on protecting people.”

Lena remembered another group of military and law enforcement that had made their living protecting people. A group that had believed themselves to be just as indestructible as Kara believed the DEO to be only to later be proved horribly wrong. She hastily pushed the thought aside and focused back on the present.

“So Cat is okay with him being here?” Lena asked, raising her eyebrow skeptically.

Kara chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. “She hasn’t changed her schedule that drastically in the past two year, I’m sure I can get him home before she notices.”

Lena just raised her eyebrow higher.

“What she doesn’t know won’t kill her?”

Lena raised her eyebrow even higher. If Cat didn’t already know, she’d find out eventually. She always found out.

Kara groaned. “Come on. I couldn’t just take him home and leave him there. I remember what it’s like being stuck in a big house all by myself with nobody but myself for company. It sucked. I wanted him to be able to have some fun with some people for a change.”

Memories of the first few months after Lex went off to college flashed through Lena’s mind. When she wasn’t at boarding school, she was at the Luthor Mansion. With Lex away at college, Lionel busy with the company, Lillian ignoring her, and the staff avoiding her on Lillian’s orders, the loneliness had been nearly unbearable at times.

Lena wondered how Kara knew how that felt. She had assumed Kara had moved in with the Danvers at a young age like she had, but Kara’s comment had Lena wondering how far off her assumption was.

“Just promise to keep him safe,” Lena relented.

Kara’s expression turned even more serious than before. “I would give my life to protect Carter. And I’m not just saying that because I’m afraid of Ms. Grant.”

Lena eyed Kara for a moment but found nothing but sincerity in her eyes. “Okay.” Kara’s face split into a huge grin. “Now what was this new information you had for us?”

“Actually,” Kara said loud enough for the room to hear her. Lena eyed her curiously as they made their way back to the group, interrupting whatever the rest of the group had been doing, “Carter is the one who has some new information for us.” Kara came up behind Carter, clapping him on both his shoulders. He looked up at her over his shoulder as if looking for reassurance. She nodded encouragingly.

All the adults remained silent as Carter turned away from Kara and toward all of them. He took a deep breath. Kara squeezed his shoulders.

“My birthday is coming up.” Lena could practically hear either Maggie or Lucy teasing that that was not new information. “And Mom said it would be okay if I invite some friends over on Sunday. Can you guys come?”

Lena almost immediately opened her mouth to protest, looking at Kara near incredulously. She didn’t understand how Kara through going to a fifteen year old’s birthday party was a safe idea. There was no telling who would try to attack her when she was relatively out in the open and seemingly vulnerable. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if Carter got caught in the crossfire.

Before she could say anything though, Carter stepped closer to her, looking at her imploringly. Lena vaguely wondered when he had become eyelevel with her even when she was wearing heels.

“Please, Lena,” Carter implored. “We haven’t been able to talk about my science fair project yet. And none of the DEO can come if you aren’t there.”

Lena wavered slightly under Carter’s gaze. The DEO being there for safety wouldn’t be an issue if she didn’t come at all, but they were obviously friends too and she didn’t want him to miss out on seeing his friends. And she did love spending time with him and talking about science. She looked over his head at Kara who gave a reassuring nod. Lena gave herself another second to think it over before looking at Carter.

“So you’re just using me to get to the DEO, huh?” Lena teased lightly.

“Of course not,” Carter protested vehemently, taking another step toward her. “You know you’re my favourite.”

Lena laughed as near identical gasps of indignation flew out of Winn and Kara’s mouths.

“How could you Carter?” Kara demanded, a hand on her chest. “I thought we were your favourite.”

“I’m sorry, Kara,” Carter said, turning around to look at her. “But you don’t know anything about science and it’s way cool.”

Lena waited for a punchline, or the penny to drop, or for Kara to refute what he had said. Her brow crumpled in confusion as none of that came. Kara was a certified scientific genius, but Carter seemed to have no idea and no one was correcting him.

Before Lena could figure out why or correct him herself, Kara held up a video game controller.

“Maybe not,” Kara smoothly agreed, no hint of deception in her tone, “but I do know a thing or two about video games and we still have about half an hour until you mom’s meeting is done.”

Carter eagerly moved forward before seeming to remember something and stopping mid stride, turning to look at Lena in question.

“So will you come?”

Lena took a second to pull herself away from the confusion that was Kara’s denial of scientific knowledge. “This Sunday, right?”

Carter nodded, a hopeful look on his face. Lena smiled. “I’ll have Jess add it to the calendar.”

Carter’s face split into a huge grin before he rushed forward and gave her a hug that Lena happily returned. “Thank you.” And then he was gone, rushing over to sit next to Kara again as the three of them resumed their game.

Alex said something to Vasquez before walking over to Lena. “Speaking of Jess, she’s already called twice to remind me of your meeting in five minutes.”

“Right. Have him or Kara call me when he gets home safe please,” she requested, jutting her chin toward Carter.

“Of course,” Alex agreed. “Would you like me to walk you down?”

“No,” Lena said, deciding to spare herself the awkward silence. It would end up being too distracting as she tried to get mentally prepared for her meeting.

Alex just nodded before turning back toward the couch. Lena lingered for a second longer, eyeing Kara and Carter contemplatively. She wondered if she had made the right decision. She vowed to call Cat after her meeting, making sure to word it so it sounded like Kara had just passed the information along after dropping Carter off at home. She had questions, not a death wish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all. First off, I wanted to thank all of you for your constant support and all of your comments and kudos. I know I don't reply much, well, basically never, but I see every single one and I appreciate all of you and am glad you're enjoying the story.
> 
> The secondly, unfortunately, is a bit of a downer after that one. One of my major classes this semester for university requires me to write a shit ton on the American Revolution and while I've been pretending to be hard at work and actually just hardly working on that, almost the whole semester has passed by and I now have to write a twenty page paper in only a few weeks, which wouldn't be hard except that I have no interest in the American Revolution what so ever. So, unfortunately, I will have to take a break from writing until around mid-May when the paper and all the papers for my other classes are due.
> 
> To end this on a better note, I'll be at ClexaCon on Saturday so if any of you see a guy in a "Marry Your Gays" t shirt and cargo pants wandering around, that's probably me and feel free to come say although I apologize in advance for my awkward fumblings at conversation if that happens.


	11. 2 September 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Thank you all for being so understanding about me taking a break for school. With it being summer now, I'm hoping I'll be able to get to a more frequent updating schedule. So until the next time, I hope you enjoy this new chapter.
> 
> There is a slight trigger warning for the use of a slur in a discussion concerning past happenings. If you want to avoid it, just skip the line between the mention of Vasquez's hair cut and Alex saying Kara should be fine. Stay safe guys. I hope y'all have a good day, morning, evening, afternoon, and all of that.

“What is the plan for Carter’s birthday party tomorrow?” Lena asked Kara as she moved her rook to a7.

Kara quickly chewed and swallowed the bite of her burger she had just taken, moving her bishop to b2. “Winn and Vasquez have already been by the house to heighten security,” Kara said as soon as her mouth was clear. “But to be on the safe side, we’ll be taking separate cars to separate locations before switching cars and then making our way there.”

“And who will I be riding with?” Lena asked tentatively. As much as she would enjoy Kara’s company, if her car driving was in any way similar to her motorcycle driving, Lena wanted none of it. Lena still had war flashbacks.

“You’ll be riding with Alex and Lucy,” Kara answered much to Lena’s relief. “I volunteered to drive you,” Kara continued, brow furrowing in indignation, “but Alex doesn’t like my driving. I don’t know why. I’m a wonderful driver.”

Lena internally grimaced, hiding her feelings by moving her rook to d7. Kara was obviously still in denial.

Lena was saved from trying to come up with something encouraging to say without outright lying by the intercom on her desk crackling to life. Lena frowned at it. Jess never interrupted lunch. She was the fiercest enforcer of lunch and refused to interrupt it with any form of work. Kara froze halfway through moving her rook to c1.

“Ms. Luthor.” Jess’s voice was audibly strained. Lena tensed. Jess never allowed her strain to show. It was one of the things that made her such a great secretary.”There are--”

The rest of her words were cut off by a sickening crack followed by a thump. Lena jumped to her feet.

Kara was already out of her seat, a gun Lena hadn’t even realized she had trained at her door. The door burst open. Lena blinked in confusion at first as a bunch of men dressed in maintenance uniforms rushed in.

Lena flinched as two bangs rang through her office. The first man through the door fell with a scream of pain, his knee busted and a hole through his trigger hand. She flinched back as she realized all of them were carrying assault rifles at the minimum.

Kara got off one more shot, dropping another of the men before being hit herself. She let out a low grunt of pain as the bullet hit her shoulder, the force pushing her back slightly and throwing off her aim.

In that split second, one of the men rushed forward. Kara ducked under the fist he sent hurtling toward her face, but before she could bring her gun around in such close quarters, another man rushed forward and knocked the gun out of her hand. In retaliation, Kara throat punched him while simultaneously sweeping his feet out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground. She turned to the other man just as two other men rushed forward. A sickening crack rang through the office as one of the men pistol whipped Kara in the temple, knocking her unconscious.

She dropped like a stone, hitting the table on the way down and sending chess pieces scattering across the floor. Lena looked down at Kara half in shock. Her brain seemed to still be stuck in the moment the men had entered the office.

“Leave them,” one of the men ordered, talking of the three men on the floor. He jerked his chin toward Kara and Lena. “Take them to the desk.”

Lena jerked away from the man coming at her only to run into another. She barely felt it as the man roughly jerked her hands behind her back and handcuffed her. Her panic rose as she was shoved toward her desk, her brain running through scenarios only to come up empty after every single one. Kara was unconscious. She couldn’t get in contact with the rest of the DEO. Her taser was tucked away in her desk drawer. Seven men stood in her office with guns pointed directly at her. She took a deep breath, trying to curb her panic and failing miserably.

She vaguely heard the tell tale sound of zipties being pulled tight followed by something being dragged along the ground. One of the men unceremoniously dropped Kara to the ground in a heap right next to Lena’s chair as another man shoved Lena down into her seat. Her handcuffs snagged on the chair slightly on the way down, jerking her arms back painfully. The pain helped clear her head of some of her panic as the men started talking. She kept an eye on their guns as she tried to focus on what they were saying.

“I thought we were to take her directly to the boss,” one of the men by the door said.

“We have five minutes until the rendezvous,” the man that seemed to be the designated leader said. He stepped forward, thankfully swinging his gun behind his back, and grabbed her laptop. He slammed it down in front of her and opened it so it was facing her. “More than enough time for Ms. Luthor here to wire us all some money.”

Lena just stared at the login screen. There wasn’t much she could do with her hands tied behind her back. She wondered if somehow the DEO or the cops had been notified of what was happening and, if so, how long it would take them to get there. She just as quickly discarded the thought. There was no way of knowing and so it was useless to speculate. Kara was unconscious which meant she was on her own. But that was nothing new. She was a Luthor. Luthors could only rely on themselves. She took a deep breath, locking her panic up in a small box in her head, and looked up at the gunman in front of her.

“I’m going to need my hands.”

The man eyed her suspiciously for a few seconds before jerking his chin at her. The man next to her moved to undo her handcuffs.

“Don’t try anything,” the leader warned. “I’m being paid to take you to the boss. What condition you show up in is up to you.”

Lena glared at him as she rubbed at her wrists.

“I have a better idea,” a voice to Lena’s left said.

Lena blinked in surprise and the man in front of her visibly startled. They both turned to see Kara push herself up to her knees with her uninjured shoulder. Lena could tell she wasn’t the only one who was surprised at Kara’s seemingly fast recovery. Everybody in the room silently watched as she finally righted herself with a small grunt. Her dark blue button up was stained a deep purple from the blood seeping out of the wound on her right shoulder.

“Why don’t you tell me who your boss is and I send you back to them as a show of my good will.” Kara smirked. “What condition you show up in is up to you.” Her smirk turned into a mischievous grin. “But with your ugly mug, a little bit roughed up may just be an improvement.”

The man’s face turned bright red as one of the other men in the room snorted, quickly covering it with a cough. Lena couldn’t decide whether to laugh as well or shout at Kara to shut up before she got them both killed.

After a moment, the man jerked his chin toward Kara. “Shut her up,” he ordered. He shoved the laptop closer to Lena. “Ms. Luthor.” His voice dripped with false politeness. “If you will.”

She eyed him as he walked away to talk to one of the other men in the room. From the looks of things, they were trying to figure out how to get their fallen men out with them.

The muzzle of a gun suddenly pressed against her arm. Lena jerked away, trying to get away from the gun as quickly as possible, her heart rate spiking with her panic. She didn’t dare look back at the gunman as she began to unlock her laptop and access her bank accounts.

“Do you trust me?”

Lena fought not to outwardly react to Kara’s words, spoken so low that the man standing next to her couldn’t hear. Instead, Lena kept typing as she looked at Kara without turning her head to where she was still kneeling, a knee and floor planted solidly on the floor with her hands tied behind her back.

“Do you trust me?” Kara asked again, slightly louder than before.

“Hey! Stop talking!”

The crack of a rifle hitting flesh immediately followed as the gunman standing next to her cracked the butt of his rifle across Kara’s face. Lena kept her eyes trained straight ahead as Kara kept her head down. After a moment, the gunman became satisfied with Kara’s lack of resistance and turned his attention back to the room at large.

The quiet sound of Kara spitting blood out onto the floor followed a few second later. Lena despaired over the price of the carpet cleaning bill after how much blood had been spilt on it, but as soon as she knew Kara was looking her way, she minutely nodded her head.

“When I say ‘go’, stand up and away from your chair.”

Lena frowned at the instructions, but before she could figure out what Kara was planning, the gunman turned to scowl at Kara again.

“I said no--”

“Go!”

Lena leapt from her chair so hard, she sent it flying back into the window behind her. In the same instant, Kara yanked her arms forward and snapped the zip ties restraining her. Before the other gunmen could fully figure out what was going on, Kara punched out the man next to her’s knee, sending him to the floor with a howl of pain. She grabbed his gun and stood up just as the rest of the gunmen finally started to react.

Kara laid down a quick barrage of gunfire, hitting half of them and forcing the other half to duck out of the way. She whirled and grabbed Lena around the waist with her uninjured arm.

“Don’t scream.”

“What?”

In reply, Kara unloaded the rest of her clip into the balcony window and ran at it, dragging Lena along with her.

They smashed through the window with a massive smattering of glass and then Kara leapt, sending them sailing over the railing of Lena’s balcony and into the air.

Lena screamed.

She continued to scream as she watched her balcony quickly recede from her grasp. And then Kara was twisting in midair and Lena had a clear view of the solid concrete hurtling toward them. That view was massively worse.

Her scream and their plummet was abruptly cut short as they jerked to a halt in midair. She struggled to breathe for a split second before dragging in a ragged lungful of air.

And then they were swinging toward the side of her building with the force of what seemed like a wrecking ball. The logical part of her brain knew that if she actually did the calculations, it would be far less forceful than that. The illogical part of her brain still imagined her and Kara splatting against the glass of her building before finishing their trip to the concrete still twenty stories below.

Thankfully, they instead went sailing through a window with another loud crash of glass. Lena felt Kara twist until the blonde was below her and tuck her tighter into her chest, and then they hit the floor.

Lena’s breath exploded out of her as they slid to a halt. While Kara’s muscles were amazing to look at, not that Lena had done much looking, they did not make for a soft landing.

They remained lying on the floor for a second as they tried to catch their breath. Lena’s blood rushed in her ears and she couldn’t hear anything except their painful gasps.

After another moment, Lena slowly rolled off of Kara and onto all fours next to her, carefully avoiding the glass all over the floor. Kara released a choked up groan before rolling over and doing the same. The back of her button up hung in tatters across her back, shredded from the glass.

“I told you,” Kara panted, “not to scream.”

Lena immediately forgot her raw throat and tight chest and aches and pains that were suddenly making themselves known and turned to look at Kara in outraged disbelief.

“What did you expect?!”

Instead of a reply, a laugh suddenly bubbled up past Kara’s lips. Lena only looked at her with heightening disbelief.

All laughter and incredulity ceased as the sound of approaching boot clad feet reached them.

As if she hadn’t just smashed through two windows and fallen off a thirty-three story balcony, Kara pushed herself to her feet. She quickly helped Lena to her feet as well and moved her to stand behind her. Lena immediately got distracted at the play of Kara’s back muscles that she could see through the tatters of her shirt as she flexed and tensed, ready for a fight. Lena hastily refocused and held her breath as they both waited for what was coming.

Within seconds, a black clad person with a raised assault rifle appeared in the doorway. As soon as they caught sight of them, they dropped their rifle to their side.

“Nice of you to swing by,” Lucy grinned.

Kara barely got out a single peal of laughter before Alex was pushing past Lucy. She rushed over and grabbed Kara by the shoulders, frantically scanning her for injuries. Lena knew the blonde must look a sight. Bruises were already blooming on her temple and jaw. Her bullet wound had miraculously stopped bleeding, but blood had already liberally soaked the front of her shirt.

“Mom is going to kill us,” Alex breathed.

Kara’s laughter abruptly cut off to be replaced by a grimace. “She doesn’t need to know?”

Lucy snorted as she stepped deeper into the room.

“She probably already knows. A few paparazzi were camped outside and caught your little trip on video. Winn and Vasquez are doing what they can, but they’re also trying to scrub me and Alex from footage of the building.”

Kara groaned. She gently shrugged Alex off and walked over to a stand of lab coats. It was then that Lena realized they were standing in the middle of an office that usually held employees but was eerily vacant.

“Where is everyone?”

Kara slipped on a lab coat before handing one to Lena. “Are you okay?”

Lena paused. Other than the slight chaffing on her wrists from the handcuffs and the few cuts from the glass, she was physically fine. Kara had taken the brunt of the damage. She felt her panic gradually receding as well the longer she was away from the gunmen and was with Kara. Even after basically throwing her off a balcony, Lena felt safe around her. And despite the broken blood vessels in her eye making it look red and bloodshot, the blue of Kara's iris seemed to burn with the care Lena was beginning to become familiar with when it came to Kara.

Lena shook herself and nodded. Kara continued to look at her as Lena turned to Alex and Lucy to answer her question.

“They’ve all been evacuated,” Alex answered. “J’onn called the cops as soon as we heard Kara’s shot. They’re on their way.” As if on cue, Lena began to hear sirens in the distance, steadily growing closer.

“What’s taken them so long?”

“It’s lunch hour in National City,” Kara answered. “It makes me wish I could fly.”

Lena startled as she suddenly remembered what had started everything. “Is Jess okay? And Alana?”

Alex nodded. “They’ve both been evacuated. As should you be.” She looked pointedly at Kara.

“Right,” Kara said. “Come on.”

She quickly started to lead the way out the door, Lena, Alex, and Lucy close behind.

“So what’s the story?” Kara asked as they made their way to the stairwell, all three of the bodyguards on high alert.

“We can’t scrub you out of the footage without leaving a sizeable and questionable gap in the narrative,” Lucy answered as they began their descent. “So the police now know that you are one of Lena’s bodyguards. Maggie is currently, with the help of building security, keeping the gunmen contained until the police arrive. She was able to grab one of the gunmen for questioning, so if anybody asks, there were only nine perpetrators.” They came to a stop at the bottom of the stairwell. “Rubio should be here soon to take your statements.”

Kara groaned. “Rubio hates me.” Lena felt it was pointless to point out that he hated her too.

“But he’s the only cop we trust,” Alex said. “So don’t talk to anybody else but him. And absolutely no press.”

Lena felt that the last part went without saying, but she nodded along with Kara anyway.

“What about paramedics?” Kara asked.

Wordlessly, Alex pulled off a necklace from around her neck and handed it to Kara. The blonde winced as she took it from her sister and slipped it around her own neck, switching it out for the necklace she already had on.

Lena eyed the exchange curiously, but Lucy didn’t seem phased by it, so Lena kept her questions to herself.

“We have to go before the cops storm the building,” Lucy said.

Alex nodded as the pair began to head back up the stairs. “Remember. Nine perpetrators, Rubio, and no press.”

With that, they both disappeared up the stairwell. Kara immediately turned toward Lena.

“You ready?”

Lena took a deep breath, preparing herself for the onslaught that was about to come. “As I’ll ever be.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

Lena only nodded in response.

As if waiting for that permission, Kara opened the door to the stairwell and started to lead the way across the lobby. Kara wrapped her arm around Lena’s shoulders, trying to shield her from the worst of the flashes and shouting as the press caught sight of them. Kara kept her pressed tight to her as the police helped them get past the perimeter they had set up, Jess not far behind the first responders.

\-----

Lena made her way up the stairs toward the roof. She sighed in relief at the feeling of well-worn converse and comfortable jeans as opposed to the heels and skirt she had been stuck in all day while she dealt with the police, paramedics, and press. While she didn’t usually dress so casually when she went to talk business, she figured half of them had already seen her in pajamas, so jeans and a blouse wouldn’t be too scandalous. Besides, she wanted to know if the DEO had gotten anything from the man they had grabbed. Lena had an assumption about who their boss had been, but assumptions could send her in the wrong direction and ultimately cost her and the rest of the DEO their lives. Best to wait until the DEO finished their interrogation and got some answers and while Lena was usually a patient person, the assassination attempt had made her restless. What better way to while away the hours of her sleepless night than by seeing what the DEO had so far found.

Lena slowed as she reached the ship, the sound of raised voices suddenly reaching her. She crept forward until she was right against the ramp, keeping to the shadows. She didn’t like eavesdropping, but she didn’t want to unknowingly become part of another hostile altercation. One a day was enough.

“What were you thinking?” a voice Lena didn’t recognize demanded.

“That I needed to get Lena to safety,” a voice that was definitely Kara’s replied.

Lena carefully poked her head around the ramp so she could see into the hold. Kara and Alex stood side by side with their backs to the open ramp, the blonde vibrating with barely contained energy while the brunette stood stock still, her arms folded in front of her. They faced the large bank of screens along the back wall, the most eye level of which was lit up with what seemed to be a video call with a middle aged blonde woman.

Lena quickly ducked back out of sight before any of them could see her. While Lena had no clue who the woman on the screen was, she recognized a mother’s ire all too well.

“By jumping off the balcony?” the woman on the screen asked. Lena couldn’t help but agree with the incredulity of her tone.

“There were ten gunmen between us and the door,” Kara answered. “The balcony was the safest option.”

“It was,” Alex corroborated. “The gunmen had no reason to keep Kara alive after they got what they wanted from Lena and Vasquez dropped the rope as soon as we heard the gunshots.”

“Why was she even put in a position where jumping off a balcony was the safest option?” the woman demanded. “You’re supposed to protect your sister, Alex.”

“And I did,” Alex protested.

“But not until after she had gotten herself splashed across every newsfeed from here to New York. I’m very disappointed in you, Alex. First you let Kara get a haircut and--”

“What’s wrong with my haircut?” Kara demanded, cutting the woman off. Lena’s eyes widened in surprise. The woman was silent with what Lena hoped was shock at what she had just said. “I’m just as capable of doing my job now as I was before.” Lena’s chest warmed slightly as she heard Kara use the assurances she had given her a few days prior.

“It’s not your job I’m worried about,” the woman said. “I’m sorry. I love your haircut, Kara, but that doesn’t change the fact that others won’t and will bring too much unwanted attention.” While it seemed that the woman Alex and Kara were talking to had Kara’s best interests at heart, Lena barely kept herself from jumping out of her hiding spot and giving the woman a stern talking to about how she was going about it.

“Vasquez has had her hair cut for years,” Alex jumped in, “she hasn’t had any problems.”

"The government nearly kicked her out of the Marines under Don't Ask, Don't Tell because someone called her a 'dyke'," the woman countered dryly.

"Then Kara should be fine," Alex answered. Anger laced her voice, but Lena wasn't sure if it was directed at her mother or the government in general. "The government will want nothing to do with her. If anything, this haircut will help."

“Vasquez isn't hiding from the government,” the woman said exasperatedly. “A haircut isn’t going to change the fact that Kara is. Any attention is bad attention.”

Lena froze. What could Kara have done that required her to have to hide from the government? Lena was sure Cat wouldn’t have sent her a terrorist or mass murderer or something. Unless Cat didn’t know.

Lena quickly latched onto the countless amounts of redacted reports in Kara’s military file as she tried to fight against her rising worry. With that many missions, Kara was sure to have pissed off many high government officials in other countries. The government they were referring to didn’t necessarily have to be the United States government. That didn’t make it any better though.

She was suddenly pulled back to the Danvers family discussion at the sound of her name.

“--Lena Luthor?” the woman asked.

“I won’t hear this from you too,” Kara snapped. “Lena Luthor is a good person. She is nothing like her brother. She poses a threat to no one except sexist old board members.”

“Then why has she asked you to kill her mother?” the woman asked.

There was a slight pause before both sisters spoke at once.

“Fucking Winn,” Alex cursed quietly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kara said, her tone flat. “And even if I did,” she continued, her voice becoming more animated, “I don’t see the problem. All of us have thought about putting a hit out on our parents and from what I’ve seen, Lena has more reason than anybody. Now if you’ll excuse me. I’m done talking about this.”

The sound of heavy footsteps immediately followed Kara’s words. Lena quickly realized they were approaching the ramp and ducked back further into the shadows just as Kara stomped out of the ship and across the tarmac. Even with Lena’s suddenly more confusing feelings about the blonde, she still barely kept herself from gasping and lunging forward as Kara threw herself off the edge.

“Don’t worry,” Alex assured probably in response to a startled reaction from the woman on the screen. “Kara has a line connecting to the alley across the street. She won’t catch any unwanted attention.”

“Alex,” the woman said, obviously hurt by the bitter edge in Alex’s voice.

“She has to hide so much of herself,” Alex said, “don’t make her hide this part too.”

There was a slight pause as the woman thought over Alex’s words. “You’re right,” the woman finally agreed. “But is there any way we can keep her away from Lena Luthor?”

Lena flinched slightly as Alex snorted. “You’ll have an easier time convincing her to quit being a gun for hire. Besides,” Alex said, her tone turning thoughtful, “Lena is good for her. She came back talking about electrical engineering the other day, Mom. Electrical engineering. She hasn’t spoken about that in--”

“Six years,” the woman said quietly.

Alex hummed in agreement. “The more we work with Lena, the more likely I am to push Kara toward her instead of pull her away.”

The woman hummed in thought. “Just keep an eye on her, Alex.”

“Of course, Mom.”

Lena quickly ducked away from the ship and back toward the stairwell, unsure of how to untangle all of the new knowledge and feelings she had about one Kara Danvers.

\-----

Lena quickly made her way up the stairs to the roof again, careful not to drop the bottle of scotch she was holding. Between Lionel and Lex, Lena had learned early on that the best way to get someone to talk was to get them drunk. After the day they had had, Lena was sure the DEO wouldn’t say no to a few glasses of scotch, particularly Alex who Lena hoped had the answers about Kara that she was looking for. It would be even better if Kara was back, but from her exit, Lena knew the blonde would probably be out for a bit longer.

Lena finally made it to the top and stepped out onto the tarmac. She questioned the advisability of her plan as she made her way toward the ship. She could practically see Jess’s disapproving look. She was supposed to be trying to cultivate trust, not destroying it by getting the DEO drunk and interrogating them. A plan they would probably see right through considering all of them had been specially trained in interrogation techniques and keeping secrets in all of their numerous professions. But another search of Kara’s files had proved fruitless and Lena couldn’t help but replay Alex’s parting words to her mother about watching her. Trust was a two way street and it was hard to cultivate trust when the other side wasn’t playing ball.

Her train of thought was derailed as movement near the edge of the building caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Lena kept her gait even as she continued on toward the ship. If they were enemies, the last thing Lena wanted was to tip them off that she had seen them.

Upon further inspection, Lena realized that the movement came from Alex and Vasquez as they talked over by where Kara had disappeared earlier, Alex’s gaze trained over the edge expectantly when she wasn’t paying attention to Vasquez.

Lena’s gaze danced between the pair and the open ramp up to the ship, unsure of how to proceed. Alex was most likely to have the answers she was looking for, but she had come up with the intent to share with the entire DEO, or at least as many as would be willing to join her and they were probably all on the ship. But that didn’t mean any of them would be in the cargo hold and while no one had expressly forbidden her from going further, she wanted to steer away from any activity that would even remotely get her on the DEO’s bad side. It would be just her luck to end up getting killed by the people she paid to protect her. Which led Lena to wonder once again why she had let Cat convince her to hire the DEO.

Lena was broken out of her thoughts once again by movement by the ledge, this time as Vasquez waved her over.

Lena took a hesitant step toward them before starting to stride over, her resolve solidifying with each step. As she approached, Vasquez said something to Alex. The red head only nodded in response, prompting the brunette to kiss her on the temple before turning and starting to head back toward the ship. Lena met her halfway.

Before Lena could register what was happening, Vasquez was past her, holding the bottle of scotch.

“Wait,” Lena spun around, making the sign for ‘wait’ in sign language.

Vasquez smiled as she continued to walk backwards toward the ship. She moved her right hand with the palm facing toward her from her lips to in front of her and then brought the wrist of her closed right fist on top of the wrist of her closed left fist. Lena recognized it as Vasquez telling her ‘good job’ before getting lost as she said something to Alex. When she was done, Vasquez turned around and continued toward the ship.

“Don’t worry,” Alex assured. Lena turned around to see Alex watching her. “You’ll get it back.” She smiled wryly. “Minus a few glasses. Maggie and Lucy love a good scotch.”

Lena hesitated only a moment to wonder if she should rethink her plan before stepping closer to Alex. “And what’s your poison?”

Alex eyed her for a moment before digging around in one of the pockets of her cargo pants. After a moment, she found what she was looking for. The light from the open cargo hold behind them caught on the object Alex had pulled from her pocket as she looked down at it. Lena just watched Alex. Even in an obvious moment of reflection, Alex’s expression gave nothing away.

Suddenly, Alex looked up and flicked the object into the air. Lena barely managed to catch it. She looked down to find a bronze coin about the size of a poker chip in her hand. ‘To thine own self be true’ was written across the top. Underneath that, a triangle with a circle in it was surrounded by the words ‘unity’, ‘service’, and ‘recovery’. A Roman numeral three stood proudly within the circle right in the middle. Lena recognized it as a sobriety chip. A three year sobriety chip if she wasn’t mistaken.

“I guess you could say that these days,” Alex said, drawing Lena’s attention away from the chip and toward Alex, “my poison is the lack of it.”

“Congratulations,” Lena said as she handed the chip back.

Alex just nodded as she took it back and slipped it in her pocket. “Three years last April, but some days it’s still a struggle. Vasquez and Kara like to keep my contact to alcohol to a minimum on such days hence…” She motioned back toward where Vasquez had gone.

“Because Kara jumped off a balcony?”

Alex snorted. “Partly. I’ll always worry about her, but if I drank every time she did something dangerous, I would never even get my 24-hour chip.”

As if to prove her point, two arms suddenly appeared over the edge where Kara had disappeared. Lena jumped and in the blink of an eye, Alex had her gun out of it’s holster and trained at the intruder.

“It’s just me!” Kara’s voice came from over the ledge.

Alex sighed and dropped her gun. “You’d better have a third hand I don’t know about that’s holding onto that rope.” There was a slight pause as Alex holstered weapon. “Your feet do not count.”

There was another hesitation and then the hands disappeared. Alex sighed again with a small shake of her head.

Lena startled again as Kara suddenly popped into view as if she had jumped from the rope. On the way up, she pushed off the roof with her hands, pushing herself up past the edge before landing back down on the roof in a crouch. Lena was honestly surprised she didn't shout 'parkour' or something similar on the way up. She straightened with a grin, her arms outstretched as if waiting for applause. All she got was an eye roll from Alex and a shake of the head from Lena.

“Come on,” Kara exclaimed, dropping her arms. “That was pretty impressive.”

“And the exact opposite of what I asked you to do,” Alex retorted. She walked over to the edge of the building and looked down presumably at the rope Kara had just been balanced on. “You really need to move that further up the building.”

“I’ll do it tomorrow.” Kara walked over to Lena. “How are you holding up?”

Lena looked up. The questions that had been buzzing in her mind since she had overheard the Danvers sisters’ conversation with their mother returned full force. She searched Kara’s eyes for any sign of deceit or any clue to literally anything that would make her less of a mystery, but came up empty. Kara looked down at her with nothing but the usual concern and care.

“As well as a person can when they survive an assassination attempt from their mother. It was my mother, I presume?”

“Correct,” Alex said as she came to stand next to them. “J’onn managed to get him to say something about how it was just supposed to be a quick in and out kidnapping, but other than that we’ve had no success in getting him to talk. We’re going to take another run at him in the morning.”

Lena nodded in understanding. “My mother isn’t one to hire slouches, but it’s nice to know I can still disappoint her expectations for me. And she set the bar pretty high this time. Ten gunmen for a kidnapping? It’s almost as bad as boarding school.”

“How could boarding school be worse than ten gunmen?” Kara’s brow furrowed with confusion.

“I was top of my class six years in a row and it still wasn’t good enough for my mother. At least now she can’t berate me for failing her.”

Kara grimaced in sympathy. Alex’s eye narrowed slightly as she studied Lena as if something had just occurred to her. Lena’s desire to get close to Alex to get her questions about Kara answered, while not completely gone, dimmed slightly to be replaced by a genuine want to get to know Alex.

A sudden lull in the conversation fell over the trio. Lena cast around for something to say. While getting information wasn’t her main reason of talking to the pair anymore, she was still reluctant to go back down and spend her restless night alone.

Unfortunately, Alex seemed to have other ideas.

“I’d best be heading inside,” she said, breaking the small silence. “Someone needs to make sure you have some scotch leftover.” Kara raised an eyebrow in Alex’s direction. Alex shook her head.

“Make sure to get some rest,” Kara said, pulling Alex in for a slight hug as she kissed her forehead. Just like with Vasquez, Alex leaned into the kiss. “You’re first up in interrogation tomorrow.”

“You too. I love you.”

Lena looked out at the National City skyline as Kara echoed the sentiment, trying to block out whatever else they would say. For some reason, listening to their conversation then felt even worse than eavesdropping on their conversation with their mother.

After a few moments, Lena heard the sound of Alex’s retreating footsteps. Kara lingered for a few moments before joining Lena as she continued to look out at the skyline. A companionable silence filled the space between them.

“I love this view,” Kara finally said after a minute or two.

“How did you do it?” Lena blurted out. She turned toward Kara to find the blonde already looking at her in confusion. “How did you know the rope would be there?” she clarified.

Kara’s expression immediately cleared of confusion to be replaced with a small smile. “We didn’t put microphones in your office per your request, but we did put them in the foyer,” she explained. “Your office door was open when I got my first shot off. As soon as the microphones registered the sound, it sent an alert to all of our tablets. J’onn called the cops, Vasquez threw the rope off the roof just in case, and Winn immediately began monitoring the cameras in your office. Once I regained consciousness, I assessed the situation, blinked my decision through Morse code which was then relayed to the rest of the team via Winn, and then we jumped off the balcony.”

Lena stared at Kara in disbelief. “You guys are all so extra,” she finally settled on.

Kara’s smile grew into a mischievous grin. “We’re all still here, aren’t we?” she asked. “And all of your mother’s lackeys are currently in custody in one way or another. I’d say being extra paid off.”

Lena shook her head and looked back out at the skyline again. “Will you just let me in on your extra plans next time?” she requested. “I’d like to be able to prepare the next time I’m forced to dive off a balcony.”

“I’ll try my best, Lena,” Kara responded, amusement evident in her voice, “But no promises. I will however, promise that I will always keep you safe.”

Even with all of the questions still filling up Lena’s thoughts, she couldn’t help but believe her.


	12. 3 September 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for mentions of past homophobic injustices done against a character. If you don't want to read about it, stop reading from when Vasquez walks into the spare bedroom and then you can pick back up when the little dashed lines appear that signal a scene change.

Lena sat and stared at the spot where Kara’s blood had stained the carpet. The police had cleaned some of it up when they had taken samples for evidence and Jess had brought in a team of carpet cleaners to clean the rest while Lena had been in a meeting. Lena had to admit that they had done a good job. There wasn’t any evidence that blood had been spilt anywhere in her office, but Lena felt like it was still there. No amount of cleaning could scrub away the memory of blood seeping into the carpet.

She was broken out of her thoughts by a knock on her office door. She turned back to the spreadsheets she had been looking at earlier. She knew Jess wouldn’t approve of her working on a Sunday, but a lot had not gotten done the day previously so Lena decided to while away the hours by playing catch up.

“Come in,” Lena called, closing her laptop slightly to keep it out of the way.

Lucy came strolling in, her hands in the pockets of her flowing black slacks. “You ready to go?”

Lena’s brow furrowed. She looked behind Lucy to where the gunmen Kara had shot had fallen, also staining the carpet with blood. Like the blood next to her desk, there wasn’t a trace of it remaining, but Lena could still remember the terror that clawed at her when she had seen it. She didn’t want to subject Carter to that.

“I can’t go.”

Lucy didn’t seem surprised by her response in the slightest. “Carter’s been looking forward to this all week,” Lucy said in a tone that totally meant she was trying to guilt trip Lena into going. “Apparently he’s been texting Kara about it all week." Lena snorted at the assumption that he hadn't been texting her all week as well. "And Jess said you already got him a pretty wicked science kit. Do you really want to disappoint him?”

“I want to keep him safe,” Lena retorted with a raised eyebrow.

“And he will be,” Lucy countered. “There will be seven highly trained bodyguards there and Vasquez and Winn have spent hours turning that place into an impenetrable fortress on top of all the security Ms. Grant already had in place.”

“Winn and Vasquez may have been followed.”

Lucy snorted. “Who would want to follow an adorably embarrassing nerd?” She sobered at the look on Lena’s face. “Vasquez can spot a tail a mile off and they were always extremely careful.”

“What if we’re followed?”

“Kara did tell you we’re taking three separate cars only to switch cars, right? And even if that fails, we have backup cars in other locations. No one is going to follow us to Carter’s party. He’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Why do you have so many cars?” Lena couldn’t help but ask.

“Some of them are rentals,” Lucy replied with a casual wave of her hand. “Now are you going to grab the science kit so we can go or do I have to tell Kara to call Ms. Grant and tell her we’ll be missing Carter’s party?” Lucy’s expression turned thoughtful. “Though if we do that, Carter may just be safe because Ms. Grant killed you first.”

Lena huffed out a laugh. While she knew Cat wouldn’t actually do that, it brought up an excellent point: Cat wouldn’t let anything happen to Carter. The boy was her pride and joy and she loved him fiercely. Cat would die before letting anything happen to Carter. The fact that Cat hadn’t called it off meant that she believed her son suitably safe and Lena decided that, like most other times, she would trust Cat.

“Let me just go get the science kit,” Lena said, standing from her chair.

Lucy’s whoop of victory followed Lena into her bedroom, drawing a small smile to Lena’s lips. While she was still slightly worried, she was glad she’d be able to make not only Carter, but the rest of the DEO, happy. They had done an excellent job so far and they deserved to have some fun.

“We’re meeting everyone down in the garage,” Lucy said as Lena exited her bedroom.

Lena nodded and locked up her bedroom. They silently made their way out of her office and down the stairs. Lena thanked whatever higher being existed that they were going down thirty-three stories instead of going up.

“Who am I riding with again?” Lena asked as nonchalantly as possible after a few flights.

Lucy laughed. “Want to make sure Kara hasn’t somehow become your chauffeur?” Lena hoped the lighting of the stairwell hid her blush as Lucy looked over her shoulder to flash her a grin. Lena caught a glimpse of Lucy’s expression turning thoughtful as she faced forward again. “She actually isn't that bad.” Lena looked at the back of Lucy’s head like she was crazy. She wondered if there were two dangerously reckless drivers in the DEO. She didn’t really want to find out.

“But after yesterday,” Lucy continued, “she needed to be with Maggie since the two of them are both publicly your private bodyguards. So you’ll be riding with me and Alex.”

“And who will be driving?” Lena asked cautiously.

“Alex.” Lucy flashed Lena a mischievous grin as she shouldered open the door leading to the underground garage. “Kara’s driving her car and we like to race.”

“But Lucy’s afraid to lose, so she had Alex drive,” a voice suddenly shouted, echoing off the concrete.

Lena snapped her head in the direction of the voice to find Kara and half the DEO standing about three quarters of the garage away from them. Lena had to marvel at the acoustics of the garage if Kara had been able to hear them from that far apart. Which was weird since the garage was built with the opposite of acoustics in mind, but Lena decided not to dwell on it as she and Lucy made their way over to the others.

As Lena watched, Vasquez threw a punch at Kara, presumably for shouting and trying to rile Lucy up, causing the blonde to dance out of the way with a laugh.

“I just wanted to give you a fighting chance,” Lucy called as they approached.

Maggie scoffed. “Please. Alex could totally beat Kara.”

“Hey!” Kara exclaimed indignantly, stopping her tussle with Vasquez, at the same time Lucy said, “You’re on.”

“Come on guys,” Alex protested. “We need Kara to stay focused.”

“I can stay focused,” Kara assured. She waggled her eyebrows. “On beating you!”

Alex immediately opened her mouth to argue, but Lucy cut her off. “Fine. Maggie and I aren’t allowed to distract to make our drivers go slower. And Kara stays on mission. We are professionals after all.”

“Exactly,” Alex enthused, glancing at Lena.

The CEO didn’t find herself to be too concerned however. The DEO were all total goofs, but when it was needed, they seemed to give it their all and get the job done.

Vasquez tapped Kara on the shoulder then tapped her watch as the blonde turned toward her.

“Vasquez is right,” Kara said, turning back to the group at large. “We need to go.” A teasing grin pulled at her lips. “Last one there’s a rotten egg.”

“And twenty bucks richer,” Maggie chimed in.

Alex rolled her eyes. “Just stay safe.”

Maggie and Kara’s expression turned serious. Vasquez’s just remained serious.

“You too,” Kara said, looking at Alex, Lucy, and Lena in turn. Her gaze seemed to linger on Lena as if she was making absolute sure she would stay safe. Lena fought to remember that that was what she was paying Kara for. The intensity in Kara’s blue gaze was just professional courtesy.

Before Lena could grow uncomfortable and start fidgeting under the blonde’s gaze, Vasquez tugged on Kara’s shirt sleeve. Kara’s intensity melted into a smile. She nodded slightly, then turned and started to make her way over to one of two identical cars parked right behind them with Vasquez and Maggie. Lena, Alex, and Lucy watched as the other three fell into easy conversation, Kara easily translating for the other two.

Lena couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy as they got in their car and drove out of the garage. Alex seemed to share the sentiment, but Lena couldn’t tell whether it was because something actually felt wrong or because Alex always felt uneasy when parted from her sister and girlfriend on missions.

Lena was suddenly jarred out of her throughts as Lucy clapped her and Alex on the shoulders.

“Road trip,” Lucy half sang.

Alex shook her head slightly, shrugging Lucy off. “Behave,” Alex admonished, although Lena detected a hing of teasing in her tone. “This is more than just a road trip.”

“Who do you take me for?” Lucy asked in mock offense.

Alex raised her eyebrow disbelievingly. She grabbed the hand she had just shrugged off and plucked the car keys out of Lucy’s waiting palm. “One of my best friends,” she responded. She started to head to the car. “I apparently need to get new ones.”

Lucy gasped and immediately started to follow. She went only a step before stopping and turning.

“I take your safety very seriously, Lena,” Lucy assured, all trace of teasing and mischief gone from her voice.

“I never thought otherwise,” Lena replied. Even if they hadn’t already proven themselves, Lena trusted Cat enough to send her a team that, while obviously eccentric, was good and dedicated to their job. Lena pushed away the small voice in the back of her head that said she had started to trust the DEO themselves.

Lena immediately internally cursed herself. Trust between her and the DEO was paramount to their survival. She could trust Cat to get her competent bodyguards, but without trust between her and the DEO, they wouldn’t get very far no matter how competent they were. She tried to ignore the voice in the back of her head that told her that no amount of trust had helped the last competent team. Or maybe the lack of trust had been the problem. But then would trust really fix the problem, or just make things harder in the end? Lillian had made sure Lena learned early on that to care was the quickest way to ruin.

Lena was pulled out of the same thoughts that had been running through her head for a month by the sound of a car door slamming shut. She looked up and saw Alex sitting in the driver’s seat while Lucy stood outside with the back passenger side door open. Lucy flashed Lena a grin as she looked at her over her shoulder. Lena quickly started forward, hoping her loss of attention hadn’t been noticeable.

“Of course you think that,” Lucy teased with a smirk as Lena ducked into the car. Lucy ducked her head around the door to make sure Lena could hear the rest of her words. “We’re the most serious pack of bodyguards you’ll ever meet.”

Alex’s disbelieving snort was almost covered by Lucy slamming the car door shut. The red head waited until Lucy was in the car before responding.

“Maybe we could act like it every once in a while.”

“Well where’s the fun in that?” Lucy shot back.

Instead of replying, Alex turned on the car and immediately cranked the volume of the radio up. The driving guitar solo of a classical rock song crashed through the car, barely covering up Lucy’s amused chuckle from the passenger seat.

As soon as they were out of the garage and on the road, Lucy turned the volume down to more manageable levels. Neither Alex or Lucy talked as they intently scanned the street around them for any tails. Lena took the opportunity to lean back in her seat, the exhaustion brought on by the sleepless night before quickly catching up with her. She was asleep in seconds.

\-----

A gentle hand touched Lena’s shoulder.

“It’s time to go Ms. Luthor.”

Lena jolted awake, instinctively grabbing for her leg. She accidentally missed in her post woken up haze, grasping at the air beside her.

“Don’t worry,” Alex assured softly. “Lucy has Carter’s present. She went on ahead to get the car.”

Lena frowned slightly in confusion, trying to make sense of what Alex had said. As soon as she understood, Lena decided not to correct the bodyguard. Instead, Lena sat up a bit straighter in her seat so she could stretch out the kinks that had accumulated in her neck and back. She surreptitiously rubbed her thigh in the process.

“Where are we?” Lena asked, her voice still a tad groggy.

“The biggest mall in National City,” Alex answered. “We’re gonna go through it to try and lose anybody we’ve picked up.” Alex handed Lena a beat up and faded baseball cap and a ‘heavy metals’ t shirt. Lena laughed when she saw the shirt. Alex gave a small grin. “Change and turn off your cell phone and we’ll go.”

Without waiting for a response, Alex ducked out of sight and closed the door. Lena waited until she was out of sight, checking all the windows to make sure she wouldn’t flash anyone. Getting a picture of her in nothing but her bra splashed across TMZ and a bunch of other trashy news sites would be the opposite of helpful.

Luckily, Alex had parked so that they were directly facing a wall and boxed in on both sides by cars, both of which seemed devoid of people. Alex also popped the trunk, rummaging loudly through whatever was back there, to use the trunk to block the back window.

Lena thanked the many times she had had to change in the back of a vehicle on the way to a meeting as she changed in record time. As soon as she was finished, she pulled the cap over her hair so it sat relatively low on her brow. She turned her phone off and stuffed it in her pocket as she stepped out of the car, careful not to ding the vehicle next to them.

“You ready?” Alex asked.

Lena nodded, prompting Alex to slam the trunk closed. Lena caught a glimpse of a significant array of handguns and knives before they were blocked from her view. She eyed the loose and concealing t shirt and leather jacket combo Alex was wearing, wondering exactly how many of those knives and guns Alex was carrying. Knowing her, Lena felt that her guess of five was too low. At that thought, Lena decided she wouldn’t dwell on it anymore.

“Why did we split up?” Lena asked as they started to make their way out of the garage and toward the mall.

“At this point,” Alex answered, “we figure that whoever is following us, if anybody is following us, has by this time realized that we’ve separated. Simple division will lead them to correctly believe that we’re in three groups of three. So they’re looking for a group of two bodyguards and a billionaire, not a solitary shopper buying birthday presents and a couple out window shopping.”

“We’re supposed to be a couple?” Lena raised an eyebrow skeptically as she eyed the three feet of space between them.

She raised an eyebrow higher as a faint blush appeared on Alex’s face. "Some couples don’t feel comfortable with overt displays of affection in public,” Alex defended.

Lena softened at that. “Of course.”

Alex relaxed slightly. Lena felt grateful of the fact. The last thing she wanted to do was make Alex uncomfortable. Partly because an uncomfortable bodyguard was a distracted bodyguard, but also because Lena was genuinely beginning to like Alex. Any distrust Alex felt toward her seemed to be more about Kara than about Lena herself, a sentiment that Lena could fully understand.

Alex moved about two feet closer as they stepped inside the enclosed shopping mall.

Lena almost immediately negated all the progress as she came to a stop only a few feet in the doors. Alex stopped about a step ahead of her and turned to look at her quizzically.

“I thought it would be more crowded,” Lena answered Alex’s silent question. She couldn’t tell how many people were actually in the shops, but only about fifty to sixty people meandered around outside of them or sat at the food court. From what Lena could tell, at least fifteen of them were manning the kiosks lining the middle of the building.

Alex laughed, beckoning Lena forward. Lena started forward, Alex falling into step beside her as they made their way deeper into the mall, their shoulders brushing occasionally. “It’s Sunday. All the good God fearing Christians are in church.” 

Lena looked at her and smirked. “Should I be concerned that none of you are God fearing Christians?”

Alex snorted. “Most of us aren’t even Christian.”

Lena shrugged indifferently. She didn’t even know if she believed in a higher power or not, so that made nine of them.

They fell into a comfortable silence as they continued walking through the mall, only occasionally breaking it when they pointed something out that caught their eye. Lena took everything in. Lillian had never allowed her to go to something as low class as a mall and she had been too young during boarding school for any of the other girls to invite her when they snuck out.

After a few stores, Alex suddenly sped up a bit.

“Let’s duck in here for a second.”

Lena paused for a moment outside the shop to look at the sign about the door before following Alex in.

“Why are we ducking into a Disney store?” Lena inquired quietly as she followed Alex back to the princess section.

“Window shopping is all well and good, but we actually have to go into a few stores to make our story plausible to anybody following us,” Alex answered just as quietly. She picked up a plush Mulan and showed it to Lena. “Plus Kara’s birthday is next month and she loves Disney.”

Lena chuckled as she took the plush from Alex. “Is Mulan her favourite?” She looked over at Alex.

Alex nodded. “Of the princesses, yeah. You so much as mention Mulan and the first thing out of her will be that Mulan was a fucking badass who saved China.” Alex took the plush from Lena, studying it for a few moments before putting it back. They started to make their way out of the store. “I’m really grateful the rooms on the ship are soundproof or I’d have to wake up to her singing ‘I’ll Make A Man Out of You’ every morning.”

Lena couldn’t help but chuckle again. “It’s a good song.”

Alex turned her head to look at her with something akin to surprise. “You’ve watched Disney movies?”

“I had a sheltered and messed up childhood, but I still had a childhood,” Lena answered exasperatedly. She hesitated, wondering if she should say the rest of her thoughts. She glanced at Alex to find her casually scanning every inch of the mall she could see as if just casually perusing like a normal shopper, but still listening intently. From what she had learned about Alex so far, the red head was fiercely protective and loving, especially of her sister. And, while not one hundred percent sold on trusting Lena, Alex seemed to be more open minded and tolerant than some of the others. Lena hoped that lasted through what she said next.

“Whenever Lillian and Lionel were both gone overnight, Lex would convince some of the staff to bring us Disney movies and we’d stay up all night watching them and eating popcorn.”

Lena kept her gaze trained straight ahead, afraid of how Alex turned her head to look at her. The ex-FBI agent seemed to study Lena, her face giving nothing away, before turning to face forward as well.

“How’re you liking the X-Files?”

Lena whipped her head around to look at Alex in surprise. Alex didn’t react and instead looking around as if what she had said hadn’t been completely shocking for numerous reasons. Lena quickly regained her composure, nodding as Alex pointed out something in a clothing store window.

“I like it,” Lena finally answered. She smiled slightly. “It’s not as cheesy as I was expecting.”

Alex grinned and shot her a sideways glance. She put a hand on the small of Lena’s back and guided her across the wide hallway so they could duck into a video game store.

“I thought so too,” Alex said, grin still evident. She pulled a video game off the shelf and showed it to Lena. The CEO read ‘Portal’ across the front. “Carter’s favourite,” Alex explained, slipping it back onto the shelf.

They continued to peruse for a few minutes until Alex grabbed a controller and brought it up to the register.

“Kara got a little too excited last night,” Alex whispered in explanation as she paid. She denied a bag and stuck her purchase in her pocket.

“Does that happen often?” Lena asked as they left the store.

Alex smirked, her eyebrow rising slightly. “Am I dating Vasquez?”

Lena couldn’t help but laugh before they settled into more comfortable silence.

She couldn’t help but feel happy at how far the two of them had come. They had gone from awkward silences and stumbling conversations to comfortable silences and flowing conversation in only four days. Either that, or Alex was a superb actress. Lena decided she would believe it was the former.

A few steps after the main doors of the mall came into view, the silence became somewhat pensive. Lena snuck a glance at Alex to find her seeming to mull something over. Lena focused back on the mall around them, occasionally pointing out something that caught her eye as they had been to give Alex time to decide about whatever she was thinking.

Right as they passed the last shop, Alex finally spoke.

“My dad introduced me to the X-Files.” Lena turned to look at Alex. Just like the night before, Alex’s face gave nothing away even while talking about something personal. This time though, Lena thought she detected a slight tightening of Alex’s jaw.

“After Kara came to live with us,” Alex continued, “I felt like he wasn’t spending time with me anymore. I unfortunately took it out on Kara. One Saturday, about a month and a half after Kara had shown up, he sat me down in the living room and we watched a few episodes of the X-Files together. It became our weekly ritual. Just me and him.”

Silence descended upon them as Lena absorbed the information. Finally, she responded with, “Thank you for sharing.”

Alex just nodded as they stepped out of the mall and into the sweltering California heat.

Whatever moment they had been having was immediately broken as a silver 2010 Honda Civic screeched to a halt in front of them at the curb. Lucy ducked her head down enough so she could grin at them through the open passenger side window.

“Get in losers,” she called. “We’re going shopping.”

Alex rolled her eyes, causing Lena to laugh as they both made their way over to the car. Lena slipped into the back seat as Alex walked around the front of the car, banging on the hood as she went.

“Get out loser,” Alex said as she opened the driver’s door. “I’m driving.”

Lucy laughed and hopped over to the passenger seat without getting out of the car.

“What took you so long?” Lucy asked as Alex swung into the car.

Alex just tossed the video game controller into Lucy’s lap. Lucy laughed.

“Did you get it?” Alex asked as they pulled away from the curb.

“Of course.” Lucy jammed a thumb back over her shoulder. “They’re in the trunk with Lena’s gift to him.”

With that, Lucy turned around in her seat enough to shoot Lena a teasing smirk. “So, how’d the date go? Will there be a second?” Alex took one hand off the wheel long enough to smack Lucy in the shoulder.

Lucy laughed. “But really, how bad was it?”

Lena hesitated. Lucy obviously loved a good joke and Alex seemed relaxed enough after their walk through the mall. Although Alex’s relaxed was probably another person’s high strung. A small encouraging nod from Lucy solidified her decision.

Lena’s expression turned mock serious. “The worst,” she teased.

Lucy laughed and nudged Alex with her elbow. Lena saw Alex’s lips turn up slightly in a small smile. Lena’s followed suit.

“But really,” Lena said, “it was wonderful. One of the best dates I’ve ever been on and it wasn’t even an actual date.

“Ha! You’ve got game, Danvers,” Lucy teased. “Nice to know it isn’t just Vasquez that does the wooing.”

“Shh,” Alex said in response.

Lucy looked at her in confusion. “What? Usually you love bragging about how amazing Vasquez is.”

“Lucy. Be quiet.”

Lena became concerned at the sharp command in Alex’s voice. Lucy seemed to pick up on it as well as she followed Alex’s request. The new silence was filled as Alex cranked up the volume on the radio.

“...what seems to be a car chase through downtown. The police are chasing two cars for, as of now, unknown reasons. We suggest you steer clear of that area as gunfire has been reported. This traffic report was brought to you by-”

The announcer’s voice was cut off as Lucy jammed her finger at the power button. Worry filled tension and silence filled the car instead. Alex’s grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly. Lucy scanned the streets outside her window and the windshield. Lena watched the pair, trying to discern if they knew anything.

Finally, the silence got to be too much.

“Is that one of the other cars?” Lena asked tentatively, afraid to hear confirmation of what they were all thinking.

Lucy glanced at Alex, but Alex didn’t give any indication that she had noticed her.

“We’re not sure,” Lucy finally said.

As if anticipating Lena’s question, Alex jumped in almost immediately after Lucy finished.

“Vasquez came up with all three different routes,” Alex explained. Lena could detect a hint of pride under the worry in Alex’s voice as she mentioned her girlfriend. “Only the driver of each car was told their route. Lucy doesn’t even know exactly how we’re getting there. Vasquez is the only one who knows all three routes.”

“But what if something happens?” Lena asked, motioning uselessly at the radio. “How are we supposed to help?”

“We don’t,” Lucy answered gravely.

“In the event that any of us are captured,” Alex said, her expression tightening with strain, “we won’t be able to give up the others. And if Vasquez is captured, well,” Alex expression tightened a bit more, “it’s hard to interrogate someone when they can’t hear you.”

“Yeah,” Lucy said, her tone light as she obviously tried to ease the tension permeating the car. “And most bad guys don’t keep ASL translators on retainer.”

Instead of relieving the tension however, the tension in the car rose. Alex’s knuckles shown white as she held the wheel in a strangle hold before relaxing as she tried to control herself. Lucy grimaced, realizing what her words implied. Lena could practically see it. If Lillian captured Vasquez, she’d kill her due to the lack of easy communication before realizing Vasquez was the only one with the answers she wanted. Kara and Maggie would be killed after that out of frustration. If J’onn, James, and Winn were captured, they’d be tortured before Lillian deemed them useless and then had them killed.

Worry filled tension and uncertainty fell over the car and none of them tried to break it again.

\-----

Alex nearly hopped the curb as she turned into Cat’s driveway. As if someone was watching for them, the gate opened as they approached, allowing them to gun it up the driveway without interference.

They screeched to a halt behind a dark blue 2007 Toyota Camry. Alex and Lucy were both out of the car before they came to a complete stop. Lena quickly followed, emerging from the car just as J’onn and James ran up to them.

“Where are they?” Alex demanded.

“I called one of my buddies on the force,” J’onn assured. “They lost them near the baseball stadium.”

“What about Lillian?”

J’onn only shook his head. Alex flexed her fingers as if grasping for anything that could help. J’onn grasped her shoulders as she came up empty. He pulled her aside slightly and started to talk to her in a low voice.

“Ms. Grant is manning the radio and cameras while Winn is keeping Carter occupied playing Skyrim,” James told Lucy.

Lucy nodded. James reached out as if to pull Lucy into a hug to comfort her, but Lucy ducked away and came to stand next to Lena.

“They’ll be okay,” Lucy assured quietly. “This isn’t your fault.”

Lena looked at Lucy skeptically. Guilt and worry gnawed at her gut. If anything happened to them, Lena knew it would be her fault. She was the one her mother was after. She was the one that had hired the DEO to get in between her and her mother.

As if reading her train of thought, Lucy spoke again. “We chose to accept this job. If we weren’t getting in trouble here, we’d be getting into it elsewhere.”

“But you wouldn’t be getting into this trouble.”

Before Lucy could think up a reply, the gate began to open. Everybody in the driveway froze as they turned to watch a black 2013 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor tear up the driveway.

Before the truck could even pull to a complete stop, everybody ran forward at full tilt. Lena silently thanked her choice of flats as she raced forward along with them.

Alex reached the truck first, narrowly missing being taken out by the doors as Kara and Vasquez flung them open. Alex practically dragged Vasquez from the cab and into a bone crushing hug. As soon as Kara’s feet hit the ground, Alex pulled her into a hug as well, only half letting go of Vasquez. Kara and Vasquez simultaneously ducked their heads out of the way before they could crash into each other.

After a moment, Kara gently extricated herself from the embrace with a soft word and a kiss on the forehead. Lena could vaguely hear James and Lucy talking to Maggie on the other side of the truck as J’onn went to greet Vasquez. He and Kara stopped in the middle to say a few quick words before continuing on.

Lena held her breath as Kara came to a halt just in front of her. Lena finally got a good look at Kara since that morning. Her eyes were bright and her breathing slightly elevated as if her body hadn’t yet gotten the memo that they were out of the danger and so was still pumping her full of adrenaline. Her hair looked incredibly windswept as if they had had the windows rolled down at one point. Lena guessed they had had to roll down the windows to possibly trade gunfire with Lillian’s goons and her worry and guilt increased. Other than that, she looked perfectly fine.

Lena’s breath left her in an explosion of relief. Kara’s expression immediately softened.

Before Lena fully knew what was happening, Kara enveloped her in a warm hug. Lena froze. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been hugged like how Kara was hugging her. Jess may have become a friend at some point, but there were still some professional lines she didn’t cross and the only Luthor inclined to hug her was Lex, but even he kept his hugs to one armed rarities. Cat was more likely to give a well concealed compliment than a hug and the few hugs Carter was courageous enough to give were never as all encompassing as the one Kara was giving her.

Finally, Lena allowed herself to melt into the hug. She grasped at Kara’s strong shoulder blades as if seeking tangible proof that she was okay.

“It’s okay,” Kara murmured in her ear. “We’re okay. You’re okay. All of us are safe. No one got hurt.”

Instead of calming her, Lena started to panic slightly at Kara’s words. She couldn’t help but recall her thoughts about trust and Lillian’s lessons on care that morning. Lena couldn’t pinpoint when, but her reaction to current events obviously proved that she had begun to care about the DEO, especially the blonde in front of her. In her panic, Lena couldn’t help but see it as a curse. Lillian had been right to tell her that caring only caused pain.

Somehow understanding that her words were causing more harm than good, Kara stopped talking and instead held onto Lena tighter. Even as she panicked about caring about the DEO too much, Lena couldn’t help but remain in Kara’s warm embrace. As hypocritical as it sounded, Lena had to admit that it felt good being cared about like that.

After a few moments, Lena started to regain control of her emotions. Instead of guilt and panic, she began to feel awkward about her display of emotion. She waited another beat before reluctantly pulling out of the hug. Kara seemed just as reluctant, but Lena figured that had more to do with Kara’s perceptive insight into Lena’s emotions than because Kara had actually enjoyed the hug.

Lena finished pulling away to find that James, Lucy, and Maggie had circled around the truck to join them and Vasquez had begun to recount what had happened, Alex translating for everyone that didn’t know sign language.

“We picked up a tail as we left L-Corp,” Vasquez recounted. “We lost them, but picked them back up as we entered downtown. They opened fire soon after, which we returned, eliciting police response. We lost both the tail and the police when we switched cars at the, Stitch, no!”

Lena barely had time to frown in confusion, Alex’s confused tone at odds with Vasquez’s violent delivery, before she was being wrenched toward Kara. She collided with Kara’s back, but no sooner had she done that then she was being pushed, quickly but gently, at Maggie and Lucy. As Lena caught her bearings, she took in the scene before her.

J’onn had Kara in a bear hug from behind her back, keeping her arms pinned to her sides. James was pressed up against her front, his hand on her right hip and his other arm wrapped around her neck. A foam dart lay at their feet.

“It’s just Carter,” James whispered urgently in Kara’s ear. “Just Carter.”

Lena’s eyes widened, her gaze pulled to the top of the driveway. Carter stood with a plastic gun in his hand while Winn stood next to him, as white as a sheet.

Lena looked back at Vasquez and Alex, starting to piece together what had happened. Kara, still running off the adrenaline from the car chase, had heard Carter preparing to shoot the toy gun and, already on high alert, had clocked it as a threat. Vasquez, who was the only one facing the top of the driveway, had seen both Carter and Kara and had reacted the best she could from such a distance.

Lena returned her attention to Carter, briefly pausing on Kara to assess that the blonde had calmed down. Carter, however, seemed completely oblivious to the tension. Lena suddenly noticed how James and J’onn had specifically positioned themselves so it looked to Carter as if they were just playfully tackling Kara.

No more than five seconds had passed before the DEO sprang into action. Maggie recovered first, quickly, but still making it look like a slow swagger, walking up the drive to keep Carter from getting any closer.

“Hey, kid,” she greeted, slinging an arm around his shoulders after making sure it was okay. “How’s it feel to be fifteen?”

“Great,” he answered, obviously preoccupied and impatient about something else. “Can I see Kara? She promised our fight would be epic this year.”

Maggie jerked back to look up at him incredulously. “What? No love for me?"

Carter immediately stopped paying attention to what J’onn, James, and Kara were doing as they tried to make it inside the house and looked at Maggie, offering up a smile that was full of genuine happiness at seeing her. “Hey Maggie.”

“Hey yourself. Now, Kara was right. Our fight is going to be epic, but Winn needs to put some finishing touches on your present before we can start.”

Carter lit up even more. “Winn’s working on it?”

Maggie nodded with a smirk. “Mhm. So while the rest of the gang helps him, why don’t you, me, Lucy, and Lena go fire up the grill for J’onn and Vasquez and open up Lena’s gift to you?”

Carter nodded enthusiastically in assent.

Lena felt an elbow in her ribs. “Act normal,” Lucy murmured as she walked by her and toward the car they had come in. Lena quickly followed.

As they retrieved Carter’s gift from the trunk of the car, Maggie steered Carter toward the backyard, Lena noticed that the rest of the DEO had somehow managed to smuggle whatever made up Carter’s gift toward the house without being seen. Winn, Vasquez, and Alex were all carrying bulging duffle bags, Winn struggling a bit with his. J’onn and Kara were a little ahead of them on the threshold with James nowhere to be seen. Cat stood just inside the door. Even from a distance, Lena could tell that Cat was concerned.

Lena was brought back to what she herself was supposed to be doing by a gentle hand on her elbow. She only grabbed Carter’s present out of the trunk to acknowledge she had felt Lucy’s reminder.

Lucy closed the trunk as soon as Lena and the present were clear and they both started to make their way up the driveway.

“Does Winn really need everybody to help?” Lena finally asked, grasping at any way to relieve the tension she still felt coiled inside her. She really wanted to ask after Kara, but knew that would only make the tension worse.

Lucy shook her head. “Winn will help Kara while Vasquez and James check the surveillance equipment and Alex and J’onn do a quick check of the perimeter.”

Lena nodded, but before she could come up with something else to say, they rounded the corner into the backyard and Lena was immediately tackled into a hug by Carter. She barely managed to keep a hold on Carter’s gift as Lucy hastily helped to keep them upright.

“Hey Carter,” Lena greeted, some of the tension loosening.

“Hey Lena,” he said with a grin. Lena felt herself almost involuntarily grinning back. “What science experiment are we doing this year?”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “How do you know I didn’t bring you a boring old book?”

“None of the books you bring are boring.”

“I’m glad someone agrees that I have good taste.”

Lena tried to exude normalcy as they made their way over to the patio table, Lucy already over by Maggie at the grill. Lena obviously didn’t succeed as much as she hoped as Carter put a hand comfortingly over hers as they sat down.

“It’s okay, Lena,” he assured quietly. “We’re safe. Kara and the rest are here.”

Lena was slightly taken aback by Carter’s certainty on the matter. “You seem to have a lot of faith in Kara,” she finally said after not being able to come up with anything better.

“Of course.” A light blush dusted his cheeks. “She’s the best.”

Lena could hardly find it in herself to disagree. Kara and the entire DEO were amazingly good at their job. Lena only hoped it would be enough. She decided to go with some teasing before her thoughts could go down too dark and dismal a path.

“You have a crush on her.” A teasingly knowing smirk pulled at Lena’s lips.

Carter’s blush deepened. He immediately spluttered, trying to come up with a way to refute it before settling on, “I don’t seem to be the only one.”

It was Lena’s turn to splutter as Carter grinned triumphantly.

“I don’t have a crush on Kara!”

Carter’s grin widened. “I didn’t say who had a crush on Kara, just that someone else had a crush on her.”

Lena sighed. At that moment, she was both proud of Carter’s brilliance and absolutely annoyed by it.

“I still don’t have a crush on Kara.” But Lena began to wonder how true her words were. Flashes of Kara’s smile and laughter began to run through Lena’s mind like a montage. She recalled how at ease and relaxed she had started to feel during their lunches and the feeling of warmth and safety Lena had recently started to associate with her. And she couldn’t deny that Kara looked phenomenal. Not that she payed close attention very often.

Lena internally shook herself. She didn’t have a crush on Kara. It was absurd. They were barely friends.

“You sure?” Carter teased. “She may not be good at science, but she’s really nice. And pretty.”

She couldn’t believe Carter was actually teasing her. When she had first met him, he had barely said a word and struggled to interact with people in any way, even with Cat. Lena had to admit that, while she didn’t completely enjoy the teasing, she was proud of how far he had come in three years.

“I’m sure you’re the only one crushing on Kara. Now come on,” Lena said, pulling the gift closer to Carter so he could open it and change the subject. “Let’s do some science.”

\-----

“Based on what I told you,” Lena asked, “what do you think we need to do next?”

Carter studied their science experiment intently, not saying a word. Lena watched him work, looking forward to seeing the spark in his eye when he finally got it.

She didn’t have to wait long before it appeared. With calm surety, he put the last few things together to complete the experiment.

Lena cheered as he sat back in satisfaction. She offered him a high five which he enthusiastically returned.

“Did y’all just build a trebuchet?”

Lena and Carter looked over to find Kara standing next to the table, holding something behind her back and looking at their trebuchet in clear excitement and awe. Lena’s chest swelled with pride. Their trebuchet stood at about a foot and a half and was built from metal and wood. Other than teaching Carter the engineering concepts behind what made the trebuchet work, Lena had to only step in a few times to tell him where something went or how it went together.

Winn whistled in appreciation from where he was standing by the back door talking to James and Maggie. “Imagine the food fights you could start with that thing.” Maggie smacked him in the back of the head. Winn rubbed the spot sheepishly, sending her an apologetic smile.

Lena didn’t like the mischievous glint Kara’s eyes or the conspiratorial wink she sent Carter’s way, but before she could say anything to discourage any future food fights, Kara started speaking.

“Speaking of fights.” Carter straightened in obvious anticipation. “Can I steal Carter for a bit so we can play…” Kara pulled whatever she was holding out from behind her back. The object looked like a vest covered in weird light panels and sensors. Lena didn’t recognize it, but Carter gasped in surprise and excitement the second he saw it. “...laser tag? We have a reputation to uphold.”

Carter immediately turned to look at Lena. “Please, Lena. Can I?” he pleaded.

Lena blinked in surprise as the focus was turned toward her. She was suddenly hit on either side by nearly identical pouts. Lena bet Cat loved Kara teaching him that one.

“Yeah,” Lena agreed, quickly caving under the force of two pouts. Not that she was going to say no in the first place. “Go ahead.”

Carter’s pout immediately morphed into a large grin. He leapt up from his chair and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks for the trebuchet.”

“Go talk to Winn,” Kara instructed as Carter hurried away. She and Lena watched him go.

“Sorry about that,” Kara said after a few moments, turning back to look at Lena. “You’re free to join us if you’d like. J’onn usually doesn’t participate and Vasquez was thinking of sitting this one out, putting us at odd numbers.”

“Thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll sit this one out too.”

Kara shrugged as if to say “Your loss”.

“Kara!” Carter called from the doorway. He was already wearing a vest identical to the one Kara was holding and was holding a fake blaster. “We’re red.”

Kara sent him a thumbs up and a smile. “Luckily the color I was holding,” Kara said only loud enough for Lena to hear. She slipped the vest on and buckled it up. “I’ll be sure to get Carter over here to try the trebuchet out after we smash the competition.”

“No food fights!” Lena called after the blonde as Kara jogged toward the assembled members of the party that were going to play laser tag, but for all of Kara’s usually superb hearing, she seemed to not hear the brunette. Lena sighed and sat back to watch the players scatter, J’onn starting to count them off until game play commenced. She was so getting blamed for a food fight later.

To keep her mind off that eventuality, Lena watched their game.

The way they played almost looked like a more relaxed spec op they would and had run as her bodyguards. They had split into three teams; one made up of Carter and Kara, the other of Alex and Winn, and the third of Maggie, Lucy, and James. Cat seemed to have given them run of the entire property, but they seemed to have picked their spots and were sticking with them. Alex and Winn were already on the roof, Winn covering the window that led inside while Alex scanned the backyard below them. Kara and Carter had taken cover in the trees and bushes lining the back of the property, occasionally jumping out to take shots at Alex or anybody else that made an appearance. The others had taken up position somewhere in between near the bottom of the house.

As Lena continued to watch, she realized that none of the blasters they were using looked the same. Kara’s looked like a Star Fleet phaser from Star Trek while Carter’s looked like Han Solo’s blaster from Star Wars. Alex’s looked like a futuristic handgun, Winn’s was a Klingon disruptor, and Maggie, Lucy, and James all had ones that looked like regular handguns, but with different colored slides to denote them as fake.

Soon after this realization, Maggie, Lucy, and James began to creep closer to Lena's position, giving the CEO the opportunity to hear the sounds the guns made when fired.

“Are their guns making ‘pew’ noises?” Lena wondered aloud.

“Based on age, I’d suspect Carter, but I think we both know the real culprit.”

As she sat down next to Lena, Cat jerked her chin toward where Kara had just jumped out of the bushes.

Lena raised her eyebrow. “I thought Winn built the gear.”

Cat just shrugged. “Keira likes to downplay her intelligence. Although I wouldn’t put the noises past Witt either.”

“Like you downplayed how crazy the DEO is?”

“Now that’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?”

“They have an armory.”

“How else do you expect them to protect you?”

“Kara literally threw us off a balcony yesterday.”

“But did you die?”

“They showed up to an investors lunch in disguises before taking out four gunmen in five seconds.”

“I call that dedication.”

“Kara drives like a maniac and it sounds like Lucy isn’t much better.”

Cat opened her mouth before closing it and shaking her head. “I’ve honestly got nothing for that one.”

“Kara nearly shot Carter.”

Cat immediately shook her head. “First off, she wouldn’t have shot Carter since she would never have even pulled the gun after realizing who it was and second, I’ve already scolded her and she’s put her weapons in the safe.”

“Scolded?” Lena scoffed incredulously. “If this was anyone else, they wouldn’t even be allowed within twenty feet of Carter ever again. Why are you being so lenient with her?”

“Do you want me to throw her out? And why are you so hell bent on finding fault with her?” Cat shot back. “Don’t think I missed that almost every point you just brought up was about Kara.” Cat’s expression softened slightly. “I know you’re used to backstabbing and manipulation, but trust me when I say that Kara is nothing like that. She actually is that nice.” Cat’s face screwed up like being that nice was absolutely repulsive. “It is slightly disconcerting, I’ll have to admit, but Kara and the rest of the DEO for that matter, is the best family you’ll ever have.”

Lena frowned slightly, unsure of how to feel. One Grant was telling her she had a crush on Kara while the other was telling her she was being to harsh and distrustful. The confusing part was, Lena couldn’t tell which one of them was right and which was wrong.

She could rule out that she had a crush. While she had to admit that she had grown to care for Kara to some extent, she also had to admit that Cat was right in that there was some degree of fear holding her back.

Unfortunately, she had more experience with keeping people at arm's length than caring for them and so replied accordingly.

“I already have a family.”

Cat just looked at her, clearly unimpressed. “They’re doing a bang up job. When Carter hires a team of bodyguards and puts a hit out on me, I’ll be sure to feel flattered.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “That just proves that I don’t need another family.”

“What we think we need and what we actually need are sometimes quite different,” Cat said in that sagely wise way she always did that Lena was sure she’d appreciate later, but currently found frustrating.

Lena opened her mouth to argue with Cat before something caught her eye over the blonde’s shoulder. Vasquez and J’onn stood by the grill, keeping an eye on it as they talked. As she watched, Vasquez flipped a grilled onion up into Alex’s waiting hand.

While Vasquez and Alex were preoccupied with that, Lucy took the opportunity to dart in and snag a hot dog. Instead, her hand was batted away by Vasquez as Alex took a shot at the shorter brunette with her laser gun. Maggie valiantly threw herself between Lucy and Alex as J’onn sneakily handed a kebab off to James.

As Lucy dragged Maggie into the bushes, playfully shouting for a medic, Kara and Carter suddenly burst out of the bushes, Carter on Kara’s back as they laughed and shot everything in sight. Alex swung down from the roof to add to the confusion, Winn not far behind with J’onn’s help. Everybody scattered, laughing.

Lena was sure they all had families outside of the DEO, but for some reason, it had been decided they needed another one and that’s what the DEO had become for all of them: a family.

Lena’s gaze was pulled to where Kara and Carter had retaken cover in the bushes. As if sensing someone watching her, Kara turned to look at Lena. A smile immediately tugged at Kara’s lips, quickly broadening into a large grin. The blonde’s eyes sparkled with happiness that was visible even from across the backyard. Lena could feel herself getting sucked into it. Into needing another family. Into caring.

The moment was broken as a laser hit Kara in the chest, lighting her up bright red. For a split second, it looked like blood.

Lena stood up. “If you’ll excuse me.” She didn’t give Cat a chance to respond before she made a beeline for the house.

She quickly found herself in the spare bedroom she used every time she stayed over. She ignored the tools and spare parts scattered all over the bed probably left over from Winn and Kara building the laser guns and sat down on the only clear spot near the foot of the bed.

Her thoughts turned toward the now usual thoughts on trust from that morning. She felt like she now had an answer to her dilemma: trusting led to caring and, while she hated to admit it, Lillian was right in that caring would lead to nothing but ruin. Which meant that, no matter how much Jess and Cat tried to convince her otherwise, Lena needed to keep the DEO from trusting her and her from trusting the DEO. Or at least keeping everybody from trusting enough to reach the point of caring.

Before she could start to come up with a plan to disrupt her previous plan of gaining the DEO’s trust, a knock on the bedroom door broke Lena out of her thoughts.

Lena looked up to find Vasquez standing in the doorway. The CEO scrambled for some kind of excuse for why she was sitting on a bed near tears while everybody downstairs were having a great time at a fifteen year old’s birthday party, but before she could do that, Vasquez held up a pad of paper. “Can I come in?” was scrawled across it in big block letters.

Lena gave herself another split second to find an excuse before giving up and signing “yes”, too emotionally tired to try for the rest of the day. She could come up with a plan for keeping the DEO at arms length the next day.

Vasquez tucked the pad of paper under her arm and made her way over to the bed. She chose a spot near Lena, but not too close that Lena felt suffocated, and cleared the tools and parts to another part of the bed.

Silence fell over them. Lena kept her gaze trained on a spot on the wall, desperately casting around for a topic of conversation. Vasquez did the same except her expression gave nothing away to indicate what she was thinking.

Lena again lamented the fact that all her conversation starters focused on old white men in charge of tech companies. Although she couldn’t completely blame Lillian for the fact that they were the first, and so far the only, things she had taught herself in sign language.

She was broken out of her thoughts by the pad of paper suddenly appearing in her periphery. Lena instinctively took it, looking down to find “relationship” written across a fresh sheet of paper in the same handwriting as before.

Vasquez pointed to the word and then brought Lena's attention to her. Lena watched as Vasquez made circles with her pointer finger and thumb on each hand, keeping the other fingers extended, and interlocked the circles. She extended her arms away from her chest before bringing them back to the chest and shaking them slightly, keeping her fingers interlocked the entire time. She pointed to the word again.

Lena repeated the sign for “relationship” in sign language, raising her eyebrow in question as she finished. Vasquez nodded, the ghost of a smile pulling at her lips. Although she hadn’t spent a lot of time with Vasquez, Lena knew that it was basically high praise and her chest swelled with pride at learning a new word.

Vasquez pointed to the pad of paper again, this time in a clear request for it back. Lena handed it over.

Vasquez immediately began writing on a new page, her handwriting neat and concise and fast. Lena figured she had had to perfect the technique when she and the rest of the people close to her at the time were first learning sign language.

After less than a minute, Vasquez offered the notepad back. Lena took it and read Vasquez’s words.

“J’onn was the reason I joined the Marines,” Vasquez started. “Inappropriate relationships between higher ranking personnel and their subordinates are not allowed for fear of partiality and unfairness, so if you already have a personal relationship with anybody in the military when you enlist, they’ll keep you from serving in the same unit together.

“There was no indication that J’onn and I knew each other when I enlisted, so after boot camp, I was assigned to J’onn’s rifle squad.”

So many questions buzzed through Lena’s head, but she settled for only one as she requested the pen from Vasquez.

“How did you meet him?”

Vasquez smiled slightly as she replied. “He was on leave and gave a presentation in my high school history class about the history of the military in the United States. I had just been kicked out of my house for being gay and was living on the streets and he took me in and made sure to check in on me and keep a roof over my head whenever he was state side.”

Lena felt unsure of how to respond. Her heart warmed at the thought of J’onn taking in a young Vasquez. Beneath all his tough and silent exterior, Lena had suspected he was actually just a pile of mush. It was nice to have her suspicions confirmed.

Hearing that Vasquez had been kicked out for her sexuality, however, left her with a sick feeling in her stomach. She knew that the only thing that had kept her from getting kicked out after Lillian had found out about her own sexuality had been Lex and Lionel. She remembered the fear and uncertainty that had come with just suspecting that she would possibly be thrown out. She couldn’t imagine what it would have felt if it had actually happened. She felt confident in guessing that it probably felt worse.

Lena finally asked the question she could think of that was appropriate for the situation.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“The first time I saw J’onn get shot,” Vasquez answered, “I nearly panicked. Getting kicked out had made me slow to trust, but J’onn had quickly secured his spot as someone I trusted completely and cared for like family. The pain and fear I felt at thinking I had lost the one person in the world I saw as family was unbearable. It just reinforced the idea that caring hurts.

“But J’onn survived and I learned that, while losing someone I cared about would hurt, the rest of the time, getting to spend it with the person you cared about, was worth the pain you might feel later.

“Because of that, I felt open to caring about someone else when I met Alex. Now here we are and Alex is the love of my life. Don’t push away somebody for fear of caring for them and losing them. Caring for them is worth it.”

Vasquez looked at Lena meaningfully. Lena could only look at Vasquez in shock. In only a few sentences, Vasquez had, not completely destroyed Lena’s arguments, but made Lena start to rethink them. Lena wondered if Vasquez was a mind reader for hitting the nail so nicely on the head with her little speech.

After a few moments of Lena’s silence, Vasquez patted her knee. The ex-Marine wrote “Think on it” on the pad of paper and then signed it. Lena’s thoughts unjumbled just long enough to sign it back, getting a nod of satisfaction when she did it correctly.

Vasquez got up and tapped the words before handing the pad to Lena and started to leave.

“Wait,” Lena said desperately, jerking forward to grab Vasquez’s wrist before she could leave completely.

Vasquez turned around to look at her expectantly.

“Why did you call Kara, ‘stitch’?” Lena asked, hoping she got it right as she copied the sign she had seen Vasquez use earlier.

Vasquez seemed to chew on the answer for a few moments. Finally, she pointed to the pad of paper. Lena handed it over.

As soon as Vasquez was done, she handed the pen and paper back and then disappeared out the door presumably to relieve J’onn from grilling duty.

Lena looked down at the paper.

“Kara has lost everything, but Ohana still means more to her than anything.”

\-----

Lena emerged from the house, blinking in the bright summer sun. Even dulled slightly from the ever present fires that were staples of California summers, the sun still blazed brightly in the sky.

As her eyes cleared of dark spots, she took in what was happening in the backyard.

The game of laser tag seemed to have finished. Cat stood with J’onn at the grill as he flipped burgers. The others were all huddled around the table, taking in the trebuchet. Carter stood at the head of the table, beaming with pride and excitement.

“A trebuchet is all well and good,” Vasquez was saying, “but nothing beats a Ka-Bar.”

“You can’t give a kid a Ka-Bar for his birthday,” James spluttered through a laugh.

“I’m fifteen,” Carter protested indignantly.

“Which is why I’m sure Lena deemed you worthy of such a formidable weapon as the trebuchet,” Kara jumped in.

“A trebuchet is a formidable weapon,” Vasquez agreed, “but a Ka-Bar--”

“Is a Marine’s best friend!” the whole table chorused. Vasquez laughed.

At that moment, Carter caught sight of Lena in the patio doorway. She gave him a small wave, not wanting to intrude on his time with the DEO.

Carter seemed to have other ideas as he hurried over to her. He grabbed her hand and immediately started to pull her toward the table. “Come on,” he urged. “Kara said we had to wait until you came back before we could try out the trebuchet.”

Lena looked over to find Kara looking at her with mischief and excitement, seeming to be just as excited as Carter to try out the contraption. Underneath it all though, Lena could see a strong undercurrent of worry and care.

Kara pointed over her shoulder at the lawn. “We set up targets a little way off. Wanna see if we can hit ‘em?”

Lena only nodded, not feeling comfortable enough to give a verbal response. The whole table cheered. Kara grabbed the trebuchet and carried it over to the edge of the patio, Carter chattering by her side the whole time as he tried to decide what to fling across the yard first.

Lena stood back and watched as the group comfortably talked and interacted with one another. After a moment, Kara looked up at her and beckoned for her to join them. Lena hesitated for a second before stepping forward. Maybe she could give trusting and caring a chance after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what I imagined when I wrote about the heavy metals t shirt Lena wears for most of this chapter can be found [here](https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/8953/)
> 
> For any of you who skipped the scene, just know that Vasquez related to Lena that the pain of possibly losing someone you care about is worth being able to care for them.
> 
> I hope all of you had a great summer. The next chapter is shorter, kind of a set up for the chapter after that, and so almost finished and, the universe permit, will hopefully be up before the school year starts, pending any further lemons given to me by life.


	13. 4 September 2017

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does the first day of the semester, but before any classes count as before the semester starts?
> 
> Whether it does or doesn't, I wanted to thank you all for all of your comments last chapter. They meant more to me than you know. All of the comments from all the chapter mean so much. So, thank you for all of them and all the kudos and everything as well. As a token of my gratitude, I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

“Updates,” Kara said cheerfully as they sat down for another weekly meeting. Lena could feel James’s glare drilling holes into the back of her head as he kept vigil against the wall. “Maggie and J’onn? Any news on Corben?”

Maggie shook her head. “There hasn’t been a trace of him since the warehouse. Lucy and I went back to do a sweep to see if we had missed anything and from the amount of blood we found, I’d say he won’t be surfacing for a while.”

“He wouldn’t have gone to a hospital for treatment,” J’onn jumped in, “but I’ve been assured that the police will be analyzing Corben’s blood either today or tomorrow so maybe they’ll find something we missed." From his tone and the looks around the table, Lena had a feeling the DEO didn’t believe that. Hell, she didn’t really believe it herself.

J’onn shot her a meaningful look. “Be prepared for a visit from the police by Wednesday,” he warned. Lena nodded her understanding. J’onn studied her for a second more before turning to the opposite side of the table. “Alex? Vasquez?”

“My FBI contact had never seen or heard of the guns,” Alex replied. “But Vasquez had more luck.”

“My contact in the military said that a similar type of weapon appeared a few years ago before being scrapped,” Vasquez said. “It was apparently being designed and built by an outside contractor before the project was quite suddenly shut down. He couldn’t remember the name of the contractor, so I reached out to Lucy.”

“And I reached out to my contact in the military,” Lucy said as soon as Vasquez was done. “All record of the company and any contracts we had with the company were all in similar states of unreadable. Winn’s been trying to hack it…”

“But it’s like the documents don’t even exist. At least not electronically,” Winn said. “I’ve started sifting through individual high ranking members of the military and government trashes, but it’s going to take time. Especially since, as Vasquez said, these are from a few years ago.”

“Any luck with your contact?” Lena asked him, remembering him saying there were people he was going to reach out to.

Winn shook his head. “That was an even bigger bust,” he answered. “Mandrax’s crew hasn’t even heard whispers of a shipment of high grade weapons coming into National City. So either this happened a really long time ago, or there’s new competition in National City, something the mobs are none too happy to think about.”

Lena knew that if she had been drinking something, she would have spat it all over Kara in surprise. She looked at Winn in shock. How the hell did he have connections to the mob? She could see Maggie, J’onn, or Alex having connections to the mob through an old CI, but she couldn’t see how an ex-IT guy for a fashion magazine had those connections.

Before Lena could get past her shock enough to unscramble all of the questions racing around her head, the DEO moved on to hear what Kara had to report about what her contact had to say.

“I had a little bit more luck,” Kara said. “My contact was able to pick up some chatter about high power weaponry from only two weeks ago. I wasn’t able to make sense of it until James suggested that the weapons may be getting assembled here instead of shipped in. Which would also explain why the mobs haven’t heard anything.”

“Do you think it could be the same group that had all those contracts with the military?” Vasquez asked.

Lena could hear James shift behind her. “Hard to say,” he answered, seeming reluctant to add his input while Lena was in the room. “We’d need to know about the contracts. The specs also could have been sold by the company since then.”

“That’s definitely an idea to dig into,” J’onn praised, “but until Winn can learn more, we should focus our energies more on the idea that the weapons could be getting assembled in National City, meaning material needs to be shipped in. Winn. Can you pull up the materials list for construction of the guns we’re looking for?"

“Sure,” Winn said, starting to tap on his tablet.

Everybody turned toward the bank of screens on the far wall, ready for the list to appear on the screen.

Nothing happened.

“Winn?” Kara prompted after a second, turning toward the man in question. “Winn?”

The fierce concern in Kara’s voice the second time spurred Lena to turn around and look at Winn. What she saw only made her own concern grow.

Winn stared at his tablet, completely riveted by whatever was on the screen. His complexion was both deathly pale and slightly green. Lena couldn’t tell if he was about to pass out or throw up. She thought he looked a bit like how she had felt when she had heard that Lillian had broken out of prison.

“Winn?” Lucy tried. She reached out as if going to comfort him before thinking better of it.

When no answer was forthcoming, James pushed himself off the wall and strode over. Lena quickly backed up to get out of his way. The gesture was completely ignored as the photographer leaned over Winn’s shoulder to look at his tablet. James inhaled sharply.

Before he could be bombarded with questions, James tapped a few things on Winn’s tablet. The screens on the wall lit up to display whatever the two men were looking at. Everybody turned to look at it.

The screens were taken up by a news headline that read “Toyman Escapes”. Lena frowned, finding the name familiar, but not able to put her finger on it. She jumped down to the first line of the article.

“Winslow Schott Sr, aka the Toyman, broke out of prison early Monday morning from Van Kull Maximum Security Prison where he was serving for life for killing six people,” the line read.

Lena’s heart both sped up and plummeted. She turned around to look at Winn again to find him still staring at his tablet. Her heart went out to him. She could still remember the weird and painful swirl of emotions she had felt after hearing Lillian had broken out only a month prior. She cast around for some way to show him he was not alone.

Whatever she might have said was killed by the tension in the air. Anger, shock, protectiveness, and determination swirled through the room, filling the cargo hold to bursting as the very world seemed to hold its breath in anticipation for what would happen next.

The world didn’t have to wait long.

Almost simultaneously, the entire DEO minus Winn leapt from their seats, hands already dialing numbers and feet already pulling them in different directions.

“Krypto,” Kara ordered, her tone one of steely determination, “lower shields.”

Lena could only think that things came in threes as she got the third shock of the morning.

As soon as Kara finished talking, the walls of the cargo hold shimmered before completely disappearing. All that was left was the table and chairs as the DEO members started to disappear as quickly as the walls, their voices competing for each other as they began to make phone calls and shout information at each other.

Even with all the excitement, everything faded into the background as Lena tried to take it all in.

The cargo hold had suddenly doubled in size and looked like a studio apartment instead of a state of the art conference room. A fully equipped kitchen sat in the corner off to Lena’s right. A large table surrounded by chairs was placed not far from it. The wall with the bank of screens seemed to have been moved back about ten feet and placed in front of the couch Lena recognized from the day Carter had been there along with another couch and some assorted chairs and beanbags. Two hallways branched off the room in proportionately the same places they had been before. A giant garage door took up about half of the wall on her left.

A choked laugh brought Lena back to what was happening next to her. Guilt gnawed at her for forgetting Winn’s plight even momentarily. She quickly shoved the feeling away. Guilt wasn’t what Winn needed.

“Don’t worry.” Lena tried to sound reassuring as she patted Winn’s shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting manner. “I know this great team of bodyguards you can hire.”

Winn turned to look at her in shock for a second before he burst out laughing. His laughter quickly turned to sobs. Lena watched him helplessly, unsure of what to do, but wanting to help.

Before she was able to come up with anything, Alex and Vasquez appeared next to them. Vasquez laid a hand on Winn’s shoulder and managed to coax him out of his chair. The short haired brunette sent Lena a tight lipped smile of gratitude as she began to lead Winn away, her shirt beginning to dampen as he cried into her chest. Lena honestly felt he was taking the news rather well, considering.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Luthor,” Alex said, pulling Lena’s attention toward her. “The FBI will be looking for him.” She grimaced. “I’m sure you understand.”

Lena grimaced as well. “Of course,” she agreed, standing up and gathering her things. She probably understood better than anybody. “Keep me apprised?”

Alex nodded a tad distractedly before following Vasquez and Winn down one of the hallways. Lena watched her go for a moment before dragging her eyes over the rest of the DEO that she could see, busy at work trying to help their friend.

She felt a small pang of jealousy before pushing is away just as quickly. She was happy for Winn. And determined to do everything she could to help as well. He had done so much to help in her search for her mother. It was Lena’s turn to return the favor.

She shook her head slightly as she turned and left the ship. She had never thought that she’d be returning the favor in such a similar manner.

\-----

Lena found herself once again climbing the stairs to the roof with a bottle of expensive liquor in her hand. This time, however, she hoped she’d be able to cheer someone up instead of wheedle information out of them. Maybe next time she’d be able to bring some for a happy occasion.

She stepped up the ramp and into the ship and was once again taken aback by the change in the cargo hold. The conference table they usually sat at suddenly looked out of place. Lena figured it probably went somewhere else, but that everybody was too preoccupied to move it.

Lena hesitated, unsure of how to proceed in her new surroundings. She looked around for someone to ask, but came up empty. One of the screens on the back wall was still lit up as if someone had just walked away from it, but there was no one in sight. Lena set the bottle of alcohol on the conference table as she tried to decide what to do. With how the big ship was, she was sure to get lost quickly without some guidance and that was assuming that she’d be allowed any further into the ship. She glanced over at the kitchen and decided she’d just leave the bottle on the counter with a note that said it was for Winn. She started to look around for some paper and a pen.

Her search was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. She turned just as J’onn walked out of the hallway on the left.

“Ms. Luthor,” J’onn greeted politely if not a tad tiredly. Lena couldn’t blame him. While she guessed the search for her mother had been put on hold, the DEO was now conducting their second manhunt for an escaped criminal in two months. She was sure it was exhausting. “What can I do for you?”

Lena raised the bottle of booze slightly. “I was wondering if Winn was back from the FBI?”

A faint smile tugged at J’onn’s lips. He motioned toward the other hallway. “Up the stairs,” he instructed. “Third door on your right.”

“Thank you.”

“No,” J’onn said, “Thank you, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena didn’t know what to say to that. All she had done was have a mass murder for a brother.

Seeming to sense her discomfort, J’onn shook his head. “For being willing to be there for him while we search,” he clarified. “He shouldn’t be alone right now.”

Lena nodded in understanding, smiling slightly. Somehow sensing her uncertainty on how to respond, J’onn motioned to the hallway that led toward Winn. Lena nodded in thanks and made her way toward it.

The hallway was extremely well lit, thankfully keeping Lena from tripping on the first step of the metal stairs that started about two steps inside. As she ascended, Lena started to wonder what else was on that level. She guessed it had to be some sort of engine room, but with no external signs of engines, she couldn’t be sure.

Her thoughts on engines and propulsion were interrupted by the faint sound of arguing that reached her about halfway up the stairs. It continued to grow louder the higher she climbed.

“--tween Winn and Lena?!” Lena heard as she reached the top of the stairs. She recognized Kara’s voice.

“She’s related to a mass murder!” someone that was definitely James shouted back.

“So is Winn!”

“Lex killed hundreds of people!”

“And Winn’s father killed six! Or is that too insignificant a number these days?!”

James spluttered. “Of course it’s not insignificant. You know that’s not what I meant.”

“No,” Kara spat. “What you meant was that Winn’s father didn’t hurt Clark. When will you get your head out of Clark’s ass and realize that Lena isn’t Lex just like Winn isn’t his father?”

At that point, Lena reached the second door on the right. It sat ajar just enough for Lena to see a tiny sliver of the room inside. It was obviously James’s room if the professional photography hanging on the wall was anything to go by.

Kara stood with her back to the door. Even through the blonde’s usual button up, Lena could see the tension in her shoulders as Kara held herself rigid. James stood across the room from her, facing the door.

Catching sight of movement over Kara’s shoulder as Lena walked by, James clenched his jaw shut on whatever his reply was going to be. Lena jolted back as James shoved past Kara, his expression thunderous. Thankfully, he stopped at the door, slamming it shut and cutting off all sound from the room like flipping a switch.

Deciding not to stick around to see if he would return, Lena hurried on to the third door on the right. She hadn’t been planning to get drunk with Winn, but she suddenly felt the need to do just that. She knocked firmly.

She didn’t have to wait very long before the door opened to reveal Winn on the other side. His eyes were bloodshot and red rimmed and glassy. His tie was looser than normal and his shirt was untucked just enough to hang loosely on his hunched frame. He looked utterly despondent. He didn’t even crack a smile when she lifted the bottle to show him, just opened the door wider and stepped out of her way.

Lena stepped inside, immediately noticing the shot glass and bottle of tequila on his bed, the blankets slightly rumpled as if he had just been laying down. She took in the rest of the room as he closed the door and sat back on the bed.

Framed movie posters hung on the walls. She recognized a few Star Wars posters, along with some Star Trek, Firefly, and a few other ones she didn’t recognize. A few of them were signed. A book shelf ran along one wall near the closet and was full to bursting with comics, both single issue and not, and computer programming manuals. A workbench ran along the opposite wall next to the bathroom and was covered in toys, spare parts, and bits of fabric.

After her inspection, Lena returned her attention to Winn to find him wordlessly offering her a shot glass that he had presumably pulled from his nightstand. Lena deftly opened the bottle of liquor she had brought and poured a generous amount into the glass before doing the same to his. She set the bottle down on the nightstand and took the glass from him as she sat down.

“To killer family,” Winn said, raising his glass with a small snort.

Lena huffed a laugh of her own before raising her glass as well. “To killer family.”

They both threw back their shots. Winn’s face immediately puckered up as the alcohol burned its way down his throat. When he was done, he frowned down at his glass as if contemplating whether it was big enough to drown himself in.

“I think I’m done for tonight,” he finally said, almost too quiet for Lena to hear. “I don’t want to lose control like him.”

Lena watched him sadly. She recalled that during her brother’s trial, she had simultaneously wished that someone could understand what she was experiencing and hoped that no one would have to feel the same pain. She was now simultaneously glad that she could be there for Winn and sad that she had to be there for him. She reached out and gently pried the glass out of his hand, setting them both on the nightstand next to the bottle of alcohol.

Winn contemplated them for a second before pushing up off the bed and going over to a mini fridge next to the workbench that Lena hadn’t noticed before.

He rummaged through the contents for a second before grabbing what he was searching for, pulling out two juice boxes. He deftly stuck the straws in each before rejoining Lena on the bed and offering her one. Lena took it from him a tad curiously.

“To our dead childhoods,” he joked, “taken from this world too soon.”

Lena paused and then did the only thing she could think of in the face of such a shitty situation and a dark joke: she laughed. Winn soon joined her.

As she regained control of her laughter, Lena leaned her juice box toward Winn so they could knock them together. They met with the dull thunk of cardboard. It was quickly followed by the sound of slurping as they both took a sip, sending them into another round of laughter.

After a few moments, their laughter devolved into silence. Lena swirled her juice box around like it was a fine wine, waiting for Winn to break the silence. She could feel the gears sluggishly churning in his head as he stared down at his juice box.

He finally took a sip of his juice before saying, “What was it like, growing up with a mass murderer?”

Lena winced and immediately opened her mouth to say the well crafted response she and her PR team had come up with during Lex’s trial. She almost as quickly killed the answer in her throat. Winn, who probably also had a well crafted answer rehearsed and prepared that didn’t completely match his feelings, was asking, not some nosy reporters looking for a scoop.

Lena steeled herself. Normal,” she answered. “Lex was a normal big brother. Well,” She chuckled slightly. “As normal a big brother as any other rich genius could be. “She sighed, staring forlornly at her juice box. “He came to every science fair and graduation and he always made sure to call on my birthday if he couldn’t make it to see me in person. Whenever we were both home from school, he’d take me to science conferences and we’d play chess and work on old cars and engineering projects. And every time Lillian was overly critical, he’d go down to the kitchens and get the staff to make me a mug of hot chocolate. He started adding bourbon to it when I was older,” she finished with a laugh before growing sad again.

“Things got harder after Lionel died, but he still made an effort. He had started to grow angry awhile before that, but his descent was so gradual, I barely noticed." Her words trailed off to nothing as tears began to sting her eyes. She guiltily fought them back. She had come to make Winn feel a bit better or less alone, not more sad.

Winn just shook his head and took her hand, squeezing comfortingly. Lena squeezed back gratefully.

“There was no warning with my dad,” Winn said, his tone contemplative and a tad angry. His brow crinkled as he glared down at his juice box. “One day he was the cool dad that took me to his workshop and built toys with me and made every birthday and Christmas an adventure. I wanted to be just like him when I grew up," Winn scoffed. "The next, he wasn’t a dad at all.”

It was Lena’s turn to squeeze Winn’s hand comfortingly as they once more fell into silence.

After a few moments, Winn broke it. “Do you think it’s okay to miss them?” he asked quietly.

Lena frowned slightly. She asked herself the same thing every time she saw something that reminded her of Lex. The hollow ache of missing him in her chest returned as she settled on an answer.

“I think it’s okay,” she said, hoping she was right. She was afraid to know what it made of her if she wasn’t. “We miss who they used to be, not who they became.”

Winn nodded, seeming pleased with her answer. Lena was glad she’d been able to make him feel a bit better.

“We should put that on a t shirt,” Winn suddenly said. Lena turned to look at him in confusion. He ran his hand across his chest. “‘We miss who they used to be, not who they became’. We could start a club!”

Lena laughed before realizing he was serious as he hopped up from the bed. She watched him, taken aback as he grabbed a laptop off the workbench and two more juice boxes from the fridge. He took the juice box back from her and stabbed the straw into it. “Ooh.” He took a sip. “We should come up with a logo for the back.”

Lena looked at him, unsure of how to respond. Winn looked back at her, his eyes silently begging for any type of normalcy in a situation that was far from normal. Lena couldn’t help but yearn for that as well. She decided to give Winn’s idea a try.

“How did your father feel about the color red?” Lena asked, a small smile tugging at her lips. “Lex always hated it because it clashed with his hair.”

Winn grinned, half grateful, half mischievous, and wiggled his fingers out. “I can work with that.”

His fingers flew across the keyboard as they started to throw ideas back and forth. Lena found herself smiling at the thought of Lex for the first time in a while.

\-----

Lena woke slightly at the sound of quiet voices.

“At least it looks like they had fun.”

She started to drift off again as she recognized that whoever was talking wasn’t a threat.

“They deserve it.”

Whatever the other person said was lost as Lena slipped back into unconsciousness.

She was jostled back to semi consciousness as someone gently picked her up bridal style. Her arm dangled awkwardly over the person’s shoulder, but she was too tired and asleep to care. Her head lolled toward the person as whoever was carrying her started to walk. Lena recognized the scent of the person carrying her as Kara. She vaguely wondered how she remembered what Kara smelled like before her sleep addled brain discarded it as inconsequential information.

Lena tucked herself tighter into Kara’s grip as the air suddenly warmed uncomfortably.

“Don’t worry,” Kara whispered soothingly. Lena instinctively relaxed at the sound of her voice. “I’ve got you.”

Within moments, the rocking movement of Kara’s footsteps lulled Lena back to sleep.


End file.
